Clark’s Grebe Trying To Feed A Fish To A Reluctant Juvenile

A juvenile grebe that wasn’t ravenous and begging loudly for an offered meal? That’s something I haven’t seen before.

 

 1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in

When I pulled up on this Clark’s Grebe four days ago at Bear River MBR it already had the fish and I assumed it would swallow it momentarily so I started burst shooting because that typically happens pretty fast. But the bird had other intentions.

 

 

  1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in

It swam over to this juvenile and offered it the fish but the younger bird completely ignored the offering and just kept swimming forward. This went on for some time so the…

 

 

  1/4000, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in

adult swam ahead of the juvenile and turned around as the younger bird continued to approach.

 

 

  1/4000, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in

When the young bird got close the offering was made and ignored once again so…

 

 

  1/4000, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in

the persistent adult tried the same tactic but this time with a twist. It swam ahead of the juvie (I’ve deliberately cropped this image so we can see the tip of the bill of the juvenile behind the adult), turned around…

 

 

  1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in

and swam directly at the young bird, giving it almost no chance to refuse the fish, so the meal…

 

 

  1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in

was reluctantly accepted. The grebe seemed only half-hearted in its attempt to swallow the fish and when it didn’t quickly go down…

 

 

  1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in

the youngster turned away from the adult, swam forward and disdainfully…

 

 

   

  1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in

tossed the fish back into the drink.

 

 

  1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in

A tight crop of the next image shows part of the fish still moving across the surface of the water. At this point I was distracted by another bird but I don’t believe the fish was retrieved.

I’m not sure why the young grebe apparently refused the fish. Perhaps it was already full from previous meals or it instinctively knew that the fish was too large to comfortably swallow, though I doubt that because in that case it seems likely that the adult wouldn’t have presented it in the first place.

But I can say with confidence that I’ve never before seen a young grebe refuse a meal.

Ron

Note: In the field I thought this might be an example of “mate feeding” (common behavior in Western and Clark’s Grebes) where one bird of a mated pair feeds fish to the other as a form of pair-bonding. Females are smaller than males and this smaller bird looked like an adult at first glance. But when I saw the images on my monitor at home I noticed the differences in eye color of the two birds. The iris of adults is an intense scarlet but young birds have dark gray to black eyes that gradually change to the adult color over time. In several of these images we can see the noticeably less intense color in the eye of the apparent juvenile as compared to the adult.