The pied-billed grebe is a species of the grebe family of water birds primarily found in ponds throughout the Americas.
Region
North, Central, and northern South America
Typical Environment
Primarily inhabits small lakes, ponds, marshes, and slow-moving backwaters with ample emergent vegetation for cover and nesting. It also uses quiet river oxbows and man-made reservoirs, and in winter may occur in sheltered coastal bays and brackish estuaries. Prefers calm waters and avoids large open expanses with heavy wave action. Builds floating nests hidden among cattails, bulrushes, and other marsh plants.
Altitude Range
Sea level to 2500 m
Climate Zone
Other
Ease of Keeping
Beginner friendly: 1/5
A compact diving bird with lobed toes, the pied-billed grebe can sink quietly beneath the surface to avoid danger, often leaving barely a ripple. It is famously reluctant to fly and prefers to escape by diving or hiding in vegetation. Pairs build floating nests anchored to reeds, and downy chicks often ride on a parent's back. In breeding season adults show a bold black band on a pale bill, the feature that gives the species its name.
Chick swimming on Lake Washington
P. podiceps eggs at Bogotá's Simón Bolívar Park
Adult with two juveniles feeding on a crawfish
Temperament
solitary and secretive
Flight Pattern
reluctant flier; when flying uses short, rapid wingbeats low over the water
Social Behavior
Usually solitary or in loosely spaced pairs during breeding; strongly territorial on small wetlands. Builds a floating nest anchored to emergent vegetation; both parents tend eggs and young. Chicks are precocial and often ride on a parent's back while adults continue to forage.
Migratory Pattern
Partial migrant
Song Description
Vocalizations are loud, resonant cuckoo-like series of cow, cuk, or kow notes, often accelerating and rising in pitch. Calls carry over long distances across marshes, especially at dawn and dusk.
Plumage
Uniformly brown to dusky with slightly darker crown and back and paler throat and belly; smooth, compact appearance with short tail often flicked upward to show pale undertail coverts. Breeding adults show a dark throat patch and a distinctive pale bill with a bold black band; nonbreeding birds are duller. Juveniles often show faint buffy facial striping.
Diet
Takes aquatic insects, crustaceans, small fish, tadpoles, and other small aquatic animals. Also consumes snails and other mollusks, often crushing or swallowing prey whole. Like other grebes, it frequently swallows feathers, which help form pellets that protect the stomach from sharp prey parts.
Preferred Environment
Forages by diving from the surface in calm, vegetated freshwater, pursuing prey underwater among stems and along the bottom. Also picks items from the surface or just below, and hunts near edges of emergent vegetation where prey is concentrated.
