Pied-billed Grebe Gallery
Podilymbus Podiceps
eBird gives this description for the Pied-billed Grebe: Compact, small gray-brown body and a stubby bill. Shorter, rounder body than a duck. Plain brown plumage year-round; not as black as a coot. Breeding adults have white bill with black ring around it. Inhabits ponds and marshes with emergent vegetation. Dives to feed mostly on fish. Black eyes. All About Birds adds this descriptive information about the Pied-billed Grebe: Part bird, part submarine, the Pied-billed Grebe is common across much of North America. These small brown birds have unusually thick bills that turn silver and black in summer. These expert divers inhabit sluggish rivers, freshwater marshes, lakes, and estuaries. They use their chunky bills to kill and eat large crustaceans along with a great variety of fish, amphibians, insects, and other invertebrates. Rarely seen in flight and often hidden amid vegetation, Pied-billed Grebes announce their presence with loud, far-reaching calls.
I saw my first Pied-billed Grebe on September 28, 2020. I was sitting on my back porch when I spotted a solitary bird out in the middle of the lake. I watched as it went under water and then resurfaced several times. I got my camera and went to the boathouse deck to take the pictures below. An interesting bird!
“Cool Facts” about the Pied-billed Grebe from All About Birds…
- The Latin genus name for “grebe” means “feet at the buttocks”—an apt descriptor for these birds, whose feet are indeed located near their rear ends. This body plan, a common feature of many diving birds, helps grebes propel themselves through water. Lobed (not webbed) toes further assist with swimming. Pied-billed Grebes pay for their aquatic prowess on land, where they walk awkwardly.
- Pied-billed Grebe chicks typically leave the nest the first day after hatching and spend much of their first week riding around on a parent’s back. They usually spend most of their first 3 weeks on or near the nest platform.
- Pied-billed Grebes are fairly poor fliers and typically stay on the water—although rare individuals have managed to fly as far as the Hawaiian Islands, Europe, the Azores, and the Canary Islands.
- Pied-billed Grebes can trap water in their feathers, giving them great control over their buoyancy. They can sink deeply or stay just at or below the surface, exposing as much or as little of the body as they wish. The water-trapping ability may also aid in the pursuit of prey by reducing drag in turbulent water.
- Like other grebes, the Pied-billed Grebe eats large quantities of its own feathers. Feathers may at times fill up more than half of a grebe’s stomach, and they are sometimes fed to newly hatched chicks. The ingested plumage appears to form a sieve-like plug that prevents hard, potentially harmful prey parts from passing into the intestine, and it helps form indigestible items into pellets which they can regurgitate.
- When in danger, Pied-billed Grebes sometimes make a dramatic “crash-dive” to get away. A crash-diving grebe pushes its body down with its wings thrust outward. Its tail and head disappears last, while the bird kicks water several feet into the air.
- The longest-lived Pied-billed Grebe on record was at least 4 years, 7 months old and lived in California.