February 02 – My Nature Journal

Pied-billed Grebes

Today at the lake, I spotted this Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) fishing alone off the lake shore. I scanned the water for quite some time looking for a female but didn’t see one.

There could be several reasons for this.

First, Pied-billed Grebes dive for fish.

They dive and surface repeatedly when foraging for food and spend only a second or two at the surface before diving again when actively hunting. They can also stay submerged for a long time. So you have to be patient and watch the water for more than just a few seconds to spot them.

Second, Pied-billed Grebes swim long distances underwater with each dive.

Unlike some other diving birds like Buffleheads (Bucephala albeola), which surface close to where they dive in my experience, Pied-billed Grebes pop to the surface quite far from where they submerge. So if you want to observe these birds while they’re hunting, you need to scan a broad area of open water continuously.

Third, Pied-billed Grebes have to ability to adjust their buoyancy at will.

Unlike water birds like Mallards and Hooded Mergansers, Pied-billed Grebes actively choose how high they float in water; they can float such that their bodies are visible, or they can opt to gradually submerge so that only their heads rise above the surface.

This talent makes them very hard to see sometimes, since Pied-billed Grebes are small birds to begin with and their small, gray heads are hard to see in open water, especially when the water is slightly choppy.

Finally, Pied-billed Grebes simply don’t flock like many birds do in my experience. Despite living in the grebes’ year-round range, I’ve never observed more than a single male and a female together in the same area, and more often than not, I see only one bird at a time.

So I count myself lucky to have seen this one today.