Grebe

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.

Or is it?

The vibrant spectrum of plumage in the bird world often fascinates us with surprises. That's how I had the duck test during a recent trip to birdwatching site near Sheung Shui. Beneath the shade of giant lotus heave pad, a small water bird with deep chestnut cheek was swimming like a duck.

Before the what-I-thought-to-be-duckling disappeared with a dive, I just managed to take a picture. That turns out to be a little grebe but not a duck. Despite the similarity to loons and other water birds, recent DNA research shows that the grebes' closest relatives are flamingos.

That's a big surprise.

Actually, I shouldn't have been.

As biologist E. O. Wilson once said, when you have seen one bird, you have not seen them all.