There are usually two to four eggs in a clutch. They are round in shape with a buffy white to pale cinnamon base color, with irregularly-shaped dark cinnamon, ruddy brown, and pale purple sports scattered uniformly over the surface at variable densities from egg to egg. The eggs hatch after an unusually short incubation period of only 10 to 11 days. Both sexes share responsibility in the incubation of the eggs; the female sits on the nest for most of the daylight hours and throughout the night, while male incubates them during the middle part of the day. Unlike their close relatives, the African and Asian finfoot, whose chicks are said to be precocial, sungrebe chicks are altricial upon hatching, blind and defenseless with only sparse down and poorly matured feet and bill. They are covered with fuzzy down that is countershaded slate-gray with a white belly and throat. The bill is slate-gray with a pale yellow tip.