Waterfowl & Diving Birds
Pied-billed Grebe
Podilymbus podiceps
A small, chunky diving bird that can sink slowly out of sight like a submarine. Its loud, cuckoo-like calls are a common marsh sound.
How to identify it
- Brown body with a short, thick, chicken-like bill
- Breeding: black ring around a whitish bill and a black throat
- Fluffy white under the tail
- Dives or sinks rather than flying when disturbed
SizeBetween an American Robin and an American Crow
Song Sparrow6 in
American Robin10 in
Pied-billed Grebe14 in
American Crow19 in
6 inAverage length, bill to tail
Details
- Size
- 12–15 in long; wingspan 18–24 in
- Weight
- 8–20 oz
- Habitat
- Ponds, marshes and quiet lakes with plenty of vegetation
- When to see it
- Year-round across much of the South; summer in the North
- Diet
- Small fish, crayfish, insects
Range in the United States
Life history
Food
Dives for crayfish, small fish, aquatic insects and frogs, using its thick bill to crush hard shells.
Nesting
A floating platform of rotting plants anchored to marsh vegetation.
- Clutch
- 2–10 eggs
- Incubation
- about 23 days
- Young
- Leave the nest within a day; independent at about 4 weeks
- Broods
- 1–2 per year
Behavior
Can trap water in its feathers to sink slowly like a submarine. Chicks ride on their parents' backs.
Conservation
Common, though it relies on healthy wetlands.
Cool facts
- Grebes eat their own feathers, possibly to protect their stomach from fish bones.
- Its toes are lobed rather than webbed.
- Pied-billed Grebes rarely fly, except during migration at night.
Songs & calls
▶Bird sounds video coming soon
Watch the Pied-billed Grebe
▶Video coming soon
