Podiceps andinus was restricted to the Bogotá wetlands at c.2,600 m in the Eastern Andes of Colombia³. It is known from 18 or 19 specimens collected between 1939-1964³. The species was still abundant on Lake Tota in 1945¹, but numbers crashed in the 1950s due to various factors and the last confirmed record was in 1977³. Because intensive studies in 1981³ and 1982⁴ failed to find the species, it is now considered extinct².