tags: Pied-billed Grebe chick, Podilymbus podiceps, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Pied-billed Grebe chick, Podilymbus podiceps, photographed in California. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
You probably don't know that these photos are usually sent to me without the "answer." But like most of you, I knew right away what this worth-two-in-the-bush nub of stringy fluff was; or did I? It was easy enough to rule out the plain, almost duckling-patterned Aechmophorus grebes, but as I pondered, it occurred to me that I'd never really had close looks at any other grebelings but Pied-billeds, and there was a bit of a logical short-circuit in my quick step from "grebe" to "Pied-billed Grebe." The fact that my identification turns out to be accurate doesn't make up for the fact that I made it without a fair consideration of all the other little grebes (oops, better make that small grebes) of the world.
How did we all know it was a grebe? The intricately striped pattern of the filamentous down is a good start. The short, bluntly pointed bill (already with a ring around it, by the way) also rules out other groups of waterbirds.
From here, if we start from the virtuous position of assumed ignorance, it gets a little tougher. I don't have access to specimens or photos of all the downy grebettes of the world, but since this mystery bird was photographed in California, maybe I can be excused for limiting the possibilities right away to the species that breed in western North America. Clark's and Western Grebes are much bigger than this when they hatch, and their down is whitish or gray, paler in Clark's. Downy Podiceps -- for our Californian purposes, Red-necked, Eared, and Horned Grebes -- are said to lack stripes on the back. We're left with Pied-billed and, I suppose, Least Grebe, chicks of which are both striped with variable density on the sides of the head. Apparently, among New World grebes north of Central America, only Pied-billed Grebe shows the rich rufous down at the side of the nape and on the lore and eyeline; this species also lacks the bare crown patch shown by many other grebe chicks.
So I know more tonight than I did this morning, always the sign of a good day's birding.
Life Science
Education & Careers
Comments
Heh. Well, it's certainly cute as a button, whatever it is. :-)
My reliance on Sibley is coming back to bite me here, since Sibley doesn't do chicks. But some googling of images leads me to believe that that might well be the chick of a Pied-billed Grebe.
Posted by: John Callender | November 21, 2008 11:11 AM
pied-billed grebe chick it is... the racing stripes on the head are a dead giveaway, as is the multi-colour bill and the orange/red on the head...
while the parents are cute as buttons, i think it would have been nice if evolution had allowed them to keep their just-born colours and patterns...
Posted by: travelgirl | November 21, 2008 11:22 AM
It's grebe mcnugget.
Posted by: llewelly | November 21, 2008 11:55 AM
Pied-billed Grebe chick! That mottle-stripey face in black, white, and red is the fieldmark for me.
Posted by: Selasphorus | November 21, 2008 3:53 PM
It's a grebe chick but I honestly do not know the differences between a pied-billed chick and a red-necked chick. So a very non-committal vote for pied-billed.
Posted by: JohnB | November 21, 2008 10:41 PM
I must say I am very impressed with those of you who have identified this little chick. It took me quite some time to figure out what species it was. It was rescued from sure "death by large mouth bass" by a good friend of mine who was fishing on his private lake. It was abandoned in the middle of the lake and he called me over to try and save it. I kept it alive for a couple of days by hand feeding. I took it to a wildlife rehabber friend who kept it going for another couple of days but alas it did not make it. Regardless, it was the right thing to do. I am still enamored by the chick's coloring. Simply precious.
Again, I appreciate the birder pro's on this blog. You all are GOOD!
John
Posted by: John Del Rio | November 22, 2008 1:24 PM
I don't know grebes, so I'm afraid my response was the natural, but less than useful, "EEEeeeeeee! So cute!"
Posted by: Luna_the_cat | November 24, 2008 7:43 AM