Horned Grebe Diving
This is a bird I see most often at Blackie Spit in South Surrey, but rarely in breeding colours. For me, it's mostly the less colourful winter version that I see: small size (12-15 inches), short neck, short, thin straight bill with white chin and neck. The bill is about half the length of its head. The top of its head is squared off a little, or slightly flattened. When breeding, it has golden 'horns,' which are really just feathers. They do stick out a little, I suppose like 'horns.' Its neck and body are orange or chestnut, with the back of the neck, top of head and back feathers all dark or blackish. Its eyes are always red with a black center. It lacks tail feathers and looks more fluffy there than anything else.
Its wingspan is 18-24 inches, it weighs 11-20 ounces, and it lives up to five years. It can be found in pairs, loose flocks and colonies of hundreds of individuals. Horned Grebes can stay submerged up to three minutes and swim 150 metres below the surface on one dive. They are generally silent.
I've found this bird fairly easy to get close to.
There are about 20 species of Grebe around the world. Three of them are flightless.
The Horned Grebe breeds in marshy lakes and ponds in summer and spends the winter along coastal areas. It breeds over most of western Canada, though not in the extreme north. Migration is across the northern US. It can be found in winter on the Atlantic coasts, the Gulf Coast and along the Pacific Coast up to California.
During take-off, it runs on water with its legs trailing behind its body. Horned Grebes rarely take-off from land. In flight, its neck and head are in line with the body and wings show white patches on both leading and trailing edges. The tail is also slightly lower than the head.
It has at least ten calls, but in groups uses muted conversational calls.
When feeding, the Horned Grebe dives in open water or forages among plants for small crustaceans, leeches, mollusks, amphibians, fish and some vegetation. Its diet also can include insects. A team of four or five will sometimes dive together, herding fish. They tend to watch carefully before diving, then pop into the air entering the water head first and feet last.
They swallow moulted feathers, which may help them regurgitate waste such as fish bones. This probably also helps keep them free of stomach parasites. Grebes have up to 20,000 feathers, keeping their bodies warm and dry as they dive for food.
Pairs nest in small ponds and marshes often poorly concealed in vegetation in a floating, soggy nest of water plants and mud, even rubbish and rotting vegetation. Most of the nest is below water. Between 3-9 eggs are laid in a single brood anytime from May to July. Occasionally, there might be a second brood. The eggs are 1.7-inches long, whitish to very pale green, and usually nest-stained. They have four elaborate breeding rituals. Both parents incubate the eggs, which takes about 22-25 days. It is not possible to distinguish between sexes by differences in plumage. First flight is 45-60 days. Sexual maturity is reached at two years.
Horned Grebe chicks leave the nest a day or so after hatching and often ride on the back of a swimming parent.
Similar species include the Red-necked Grebe and the Eared Grebe. The Red-necked Grebe has a brownish cap and a darker eye. The Eared Grebe has a dark cheek and an up-turned bill.
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