Grebes – Page 12 – Feathered Photography

Clark’s Grebes – Parents Feeding Fish To Some Very Excited Chicks

This past June I spent lots of time with Western and Clark’s Grebes as they were raising their families. The two species are quite similar but the adult birds in this post can be recognized as Clark’s Grebes by their bright yellow-orange bills and the fact that their eyes are surrounded by white plumage, rather than black. 1/2000. f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light This female of a mated pair was fishing for her family as the male back-brooded two chicks (the sexes take turns with each role). I happened to catch her just as she emerged from the water with a fish and shook the water off. I wish I had better eye contact and more room around the grebe, but this image is full frame. I include it here because it’s the logical beginning of this “fish story”. 1/2000. f/8, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light Seconds later she swam over to deliver the fish to her family. Sometimes the fish will be given to the brooding parent, who may eat it or give it to a chick. Other times, the fishing parent gives it directly to one of the youngsters. Either way, if the chicks are hungry they become very excited and aggressive in their attempts to be the one who gets the fish. Before the young birds saw breakfast coming their way, they were tucked down peacefully under each wing with only their heads and necks sticking out. All that changed in an instant. 1/2000….

Western Grebe Chick Reacts To Food

I’ve always enjoyed spending time with Western Grebes but until this past summer I’ve had very little success in photographing parents back-brooding their chicks. In June at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge my luck with this behavior changed and I was able to get quite a few nice images of the chicks on the backs of the parents over many days. Here, two chicks wait patiently on the back of one of the parents while the other one attempts to catch fish for breakfast. The fishing parent would feed small fish to both chicks and to the brooding parent. The chicks watch attentively for the adult to emerge from the nearby water with something to eat. I was always torn about what to photograph – the parent with the fish or the reactions of the chicks to approaching food. In this case I chose the latter. Here, the chick on the right has just spotted its parent come up out of the water from behind with a small fish and is beginning to react. Usually, both chicks were hungry and competed for the food but this time the youngster on the left was full and not interested in anything to eat. But the chick on the right didn’t know that and went into full competetive begging mode. I always enjoyed watching these reactions to food. Ron

Western Grebes: A Bizarre Behavior Finally Explained

Anyone who has spent a significant amount of time observing Western Grebes (or their close relatives, Clark’s Grebes) has undoubtedly observed this curious behavior multiple times. But before I continue, a few words of explanation are in order. Grebes are unique to most other water birds in two ways that are related to this behavior: 1.) their legs are attached to their bodies at the rear, rather than underneath and 2.) the toes of grebes are lobed instead of webbed. Having legs attached at the rear allows for efficient swimming but causes extreme clumsiness while walking – they rarely venture on to land, but when they do they often fall down after just a few steps. This leg attachment position is so distinctive of grebes that the genus name of four of the North American grebe species is Podiceps (from “podicis” meaning anus or vent and “pes” meaning foot) – in other words, “anus foot”. (and yes, I’m having a hard time resisting a joke line or two with that phrase…) Recent experimental work with grebes has demonstrated that the lobes on the toes function much like the hydrofoil blades of a propeller. Ok, with that background, on to this strange behavioral quirk of the Western Grebe. Without warning, and for no apparent reason, they stick one of their legs out behind them. With those unusual feet it can look pretty silly. Sometimes they’ll do a simultaneous wing stretch, but rarely. Occasionally they’ll hold the foot high in the air for quite a while. That can look even sillier. Even the chicks do it….

Some Recent Shots I Like, Despite Some Flaws

Like every other bird photographer many of the photos I take are not worth keeping. For the first few years I was shooting birds I estimated that I deleted 90% of my images. Now that I’ve become a little more discriminating that number is probably closer to 95%. Birds are incredibly difficult subjects – they’re fast, unpredictable, difficult to approach and generally uncooperative. When I’m culling images after a day in the field most shots fall under two main categories – keepers and garbage. But there’s often a few that are technically lacking for one reason or another but have some unusual or especially interesting feature that makes it difficult for me to trash them. So I don’t. Occasionally I go back through them just for the fun of it. I enjoy them and thought some of you might too so here’s a few from the past month or so. 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 500 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This one’s from yesterday – a Lark Sparrow that posed and groomed for us for quite a while. Looking through the viewfinder I had no idea there was a second Lark Sparrow in the vicinity and didn’t even notice it flying through the frame until I got home and looked at it on my computer. Mia said that she’d noticed the second bird and that it chased the first bird away when it flew. Anyway, I thought the out-of-focus sparrow to the left was an interesting serendipity. I just wish the two twigs by the head weren’t there. 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 500 500 f/4, 1.4…

Western Grebe Chick – A Lesson Learned In Feather Eating

Most grebe species are well known for feather-eating and the Western Grebe is certainly no exception. I’ve seen and photographed them gobbling down feathers multiple times. While the purpose of such behavior remains unproven it is suspected that the feathers enable more efficient digestion of fish bones and aid in removing digestive parasites. I’ve discussed this in further detail and provided more images of the behavior here. 1/2000, f/8, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc The feathers on their flanks and scapulars are in almost constant molt and when grooming dislodges them they are deliberately swallowed. Often, as was the case here, the feather is floating on the surface of the water and the grebe simply snatches it up as it floats by. 1/2000, f/8, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc But this time the feather was fed to the chick on the back of the parent. Adults begin feeding feathers to their offspring on the first day of their lives. BNA reports that researchers have found over 300 feathers in the stomachs of individual chicks that were no more than three days old. 1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc But of course not just any old feather will do. It must be small, soft and downy and without a stiff quill but apparently this is a lesson that the chicks must learn for themselves. As soon as the youngsters begin to make occasional forays off the backs of their parents and into open water they begin to experiment with feathers they…

Western Grebes Dumping Their Chicks

I haven’t posted for a few days because I’ve been in Montana for most of the past week. I have many images from that trip and hopefully some of them will appear here in the near future. But for now I’d like to report on another grebe behavior I photographed recently. This time it will be the Western Grebe, rather than the Clark’s Grebes in two of my recent posts. The two species are very similar and most easily distinguished by differences in bill color (Clark’s is bright yellow to orange-yellow while the Western’s bill is yellow to dull olive colored) and coloration around the eye (Clark’s is white surrounding the eye while the Western is dark around the eye). Both species rarely fly except during migration. In fact for much of the year they are incapable of flight because their flight muscles atrophy soon after arriving at their breeding grounds. So it’s my working theory that this might explain part of the reason why these grebes do so much wing flapping and stretching while sitting on the surface of the water – to excercise their relatively unused wings. Note: In many of these images I was too close to the birds to get an aesthetically pleasing composition so in most cases the birds will be too tight in the frame. But I think they show well the behavior I’m describing. 1/2000, f/10, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This Western Grebe is in the middle of a wing-flap. They look so lithe and streamlined while…

Clark’s Grebe Chicks Competing For Food

One of the Clark’s Grebe behaviors I was able to photograph last week was the adults feeding their chicks. The youngsters would be on the back of one parent while the other one brought in fish for breakfast. They were always small fish, to accommodate the very young chicks. Some of these aren’t great photos but collectively I think they tell an interesting story. I had been shooting faster action just prior to this sequence so my settings for the first shot aren’t particularly appropriate but then I quickly adjusted. 1/4000, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc The parent bringing in the fish wouldn’t give them directly to the chicks but instead would hand them off to its mate and then that bird would feed the youngsters on its back. Here the parent on the left has just given this small fish to the brooding adult. 1/2500, f/8, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc The chick in the water knew it had no chance to get the fish while it was there so it immediately made a bee-line for the back of its parent. When they’re this size they still struggle to get on board. Sometimes the parent sticks a leg out backward for the chick to climb up on but this youngster was on its own and was frantic to get up front where the food would be doled out. 1/2500, f/8, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc I imagine it’s not easy getting up there since they have to work against the grain of the feathers of the…

Can’t We Go Any Faster Dad?

I’ll preface this post with an apology for the cutesy title. I usually avoid them at all costs but in this case I just couldn’t help myself… (I’m making the assumption that the adult bird here is the male because of its straight bill but it’s a subtle distinction and I could be wrong). For the last few days we’ve been having a great time with Clark’s and Western Grebes and their chicks. Both sexes of both species brood their chicks on their backs (back brooding) from almost the moment they hatch until they are quite large. I’ve seen up to three chicks of about this size on the back of a single adult, although by the time they get this size the other parent often shares the burden. 1/1600, f/8, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc When I first saw this image of a Clark’s Grebe and its chick on my screen I assumed it was simply another case of the youngster having just jumped onto the back of the adult (as evidenced by the position of the feet and the direction of the water splash). But now I’m quite convinced that the adult was actually allowing the youngster to act as an outboard motor of sorts as the chick seems to be providing the propulsion as the parent relaxes. If so, and I think it is, in all the time I’ve spent watching these birds this is the first time I’ve noticed such interesting behavior. I offer this image as further evidence of my theory…

“Rushing” Western Grebes

The ritualized displays and courtship ceremonies of Western Grebes are among the most complex known in the bird world. One of them is called the “rushing ceremony” which includes 5 distinct phases – only one of which is actually referred to as “rushing”. Yesterday I finally was able to photograph this most dramatic part of the display and believe me it’s been a long time coming. Mia and I were photographing a pair of these grebes with chicks and though we both were aware of another small group of grebes a little further away I was concentrating so intently on those chicks that I didn’t notice what Mia noticed – that the behavior of two of those birds had suddenly changed. She said “they’re going to do something” so all I had time to do was quickly aim my lens at these birds and fire away. Without Mia I’d have missed the entire sequence. 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc When rushing, the two birds (usually a mated pair but two males may also do it to attract females) lunge forward and rise completely out of the water. 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc As their legs and feet start to churn at incredible speeds their bodies begin to become more vertical… 1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc until the birds are almost completely vertical to the water and their feet are slapping the surface so fast (16-20 steps per second) that the slapping and splashing noise is loud and can be heard a great distance away. The…

Pied-billed Grebe Feeding Behaviors

Pied-billed Grebes are fascinating little birds with a chip on their shoulders. They are pugnacious, full of personality and quite small. They don’t seem to get a lot of attention from bird photographers, possibly because of their generally drab colors and because they’re so common. I really enjoy watching and photographing their behaviors. I’ve stated here before that “behavior” is a major focus of this blog and if I have images of interesting behaviors that are less than perfect technically I will still post them if they illustrate the behavior well. There are several in that category in this post. Grebe with young carp Carp are the primary food for these birds in many of the ponds I frequent. Even young fish can make a huge mouthful for these very small grebes. Swallowing a carp I’ve seen it take several minutes for a grebe to finally work one of these huge (for them) fish down their throats. And I’ve yet to see one give up on the meal because it’s too big. A slippery meal Fish are slimy and slippery and sometimes get away from the grebe temporarily, though they always seem to be recaptured. A potential thief in the background These birds are very social so there’s nearly always other grebes close by when one catches a meal and some of them will invariably try to steal the prize from its rightful owner. This can make for some very interesting but challenging encounters for the photographer because the action is usually so…

Why Grebes Eat Feathers

Grebes, as a group, are known for eating feathers – usually their own. The obvious question is – why? There would be virtually no nutritional value in a feather. Clark’s Grebe eating a feather I’ve photographed four species of grebes – Western Grebe, Clarks Grebe (these two are very similar), Pied-billed Grebe and Eared Grebe. I’ve been able to document feather eating in all but the Eared Grebe. Western Grebe parent feeding feather to young Over a period of perhaps a half hour I watched this adult feed several feathers to the chicks, who seemed almost as eager to consume the feathers as they did the fish provided by the parents. Western Grebe chick reaching for a feather from its parent Feathers are fed to the young almost immediately after hatching. In fact, feathers are very often the first item eaten by newly hatched chicks of many grebe species. The purpose(s) of feather eating is unproven but evidence suggests that the behavior has these benefits for the birds. Some of the ingested feathers form a plug in the pylorus, between the stomach and small intestine, which acts as a strainer to keep fish bones in the stomach long enough to be completely digested. Most swallowed feathers end up in the stomach lumen, mixed with food. They eventually (along with any indigestible matter) form pellets that are ejected through the mouth. The continuous passage of these pellets through the upper digestive system minimizes the buildup of a variety of parasites that are very common there and plague grebes. Pied-billed…

Photographing Birds on Antelope Island

My previous post was an overview of the geology of Antelope Island and its non-bird wildlife. Here, I’ll focus on its birds. Juvenile Loggerhead Shrike begging for food Loggerhead Shrikes are common on many parts of the island during summer. They can be a challenge to approach but those few that nest close to the road eventually get used to traffic so if you photograph from your vehicle you can often get quite close. Here this juvenile was begging for food that was being delivered by a parent just out of frame to the left. Loggerhead Shrike with dragonfly Shrikes are often called “butcher birds” for their practice of temporarily impaling their prey on thorns or other sharp projections. This juvenile had done just that with the dragonfly but it wasn’t very good at it yet and in the end just decided to eat it instead of store it away. Loggerhead Shrike with spider Shrikes are opportunistic carnivores known to feed on insects, spiders, amphibians, small reptiles, rodents and other birds. This one also attempted to impale the prey before eating it. Juvenile Burrowing Owl practicing its parallax technique on me Burrowing Owls are one of my favorite species on the island though they can be difficult to locate from year to year as they often don’t seem to nest in the same burrow the next year. In the summer of 2009 there was an entire family of owls along the causeway to the island nesting under concrete rubble, as in the…

Category: Grebes