Pied-billed Grebe, Podilymbus podiceps


Pied-billed Grebe
The black ring around the bill in breeding plumage, above, gives the bird its name; the bill is plain rather than pied outside of breeding
season, below.


Pied-billed Grebe


Pied-billed Grebe
This was my first photo of a Pied-billed Grebe making its running start to launch flight. I noticed that the bird was entangled in filament only when I processed the image; after posting it on a local birding site, I learned the bird had been seen earlier and had survived for months in this condition. Note the breeding-plumage dark ring around the bill just beginning to appear in mid-February.


Pied-billed Grebe
Above and below, a breeding-plumage bird capturing and swallowing a small crab.


Pied-billed Grebe


Pied-billed Grebe
Here the plumage is non-breeding in winter, and the prey is a fish.


Pied-billed Grebe, downy chick, 6/29/07, Marble Hot Springs Road, Sierra Valley, Plumas Co
The picture above shows a young chick still downy in June. Below, in February, an exceptionally early juvenile with adult parent, further along than the juvenile above, having already lost all of its down. Three downy chicks had been reported at this site in January, an event local bird expert Bob Power described (tongue-twistingly) as a "phenomenal anomaly." The earliest previous sighting of a newborn in the area had been in late March.
 


Pied-billed Grebes


Pied-billed Grebes
The juvenile shown in this picture begging from an adult that has mostly molted to non-breeding in November; note the black spot on the adult's bill, last vestige of the breeding-plumage ring.