Pied-billed Grebe - Podilymbus podiceps

Identification tips: The Pied-Billed Grebe is perhaps best identified by its behavior and size. It's about half the size of a Mallard, and it dives under the surface by sort of "jumping" under the water (Click here to see a movie of this behavior) or, more remarkably, by slowly sinking out of sight. Its feet are lobed, rather than webbed like ducks. At close range you can see the dark ring on the light-colored bill. The bill itself is very "un-ducklike" - it is more chisel shaped.

Natural History: This bird is an expert diver and fisher, sometimes catching fish so large that it has trouble swallowing them. It is very graceful in the water- and tricky, too. When it feels threatened, it will dive and swim some distance from where it went under, and then surface in shoreside vegetation, sometimes with only its bill breaking the water surface. It can't take flight from the land, and so rarely goes on land. It needs to run on the surface of the water to take flight, so it needs a decent expanse of water to build up a sufficient head of steam. Bohlen, in Illinois Birds, reports that he saw one trapped in a swimming pool because the pool was too small to allow the grebe sufficient running room to fly.

Grebe parents will carry their very young offspring on their backs. The nests float on the surface of the water, anchored to emergent vegetation. Bohlen reports 3 to 9 eggs per clutch. I have not seen the species breeding on our lake, but it could in the western wetland where conditions are more favorable. This would be great, as the Pied-billed Grebe is a threatened species in Illinois because of destruction of its favorite wetland nesting habitats.

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