{"id":117691,"date":"2023-11-01T04:20:47","date_gmt":"2023-11-01T10:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=117691"},"modified":"2023-11-01T04:20:47","modified_gmt":"2023-11-01T10:20:47","slug":"interesting-pied-billed-grebe-faux-crash-dive-behavior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/11\/01\/interesting-pied-billed-grebe-faux-crash-dive-behavior\/","title":{"rendered":"Interesting Pied-billed Grebe Faux Crash-Dive Behavior"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had a great time observing and photographing a Pied-billed Grebe exhibiting Crash-dive behavior at Bear River MBR<\/span><\/a> from the auto tour loop on Monday.<\/p>\n

\"Pied-billedPied-billed Grebe at the start of a Crash-dive \u2013 Nikon D500, f8, 1\/1600, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Personally, I call this behavior as ‘submarining’ because the grebes sink like a submarine. However, for this post, I will use the term ‘Crash-dive’ because it is the proper terminology.<\/p>\n

What is a Pied-billed Grebe Crash-dive?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The explanation for Crash-dive on BirdsoftheWorld.org<\/span><\/a> is as follows:<\/p>\n

Crash-dive: Pushes breast down and thrusts wings outward, pushing body down, tail and head disappearing last, while feet kick water up to 2 meters into air.<\/em><\/p>\n

There were several Pied-billed Grebes in the area where I photographed the one at the start of a Crash-dive above. There were also gulls circling overhead that were diving at the grebes because they were attempting to steal small fish from the grebes.<\/p>\n

But it was a Northern Harrier diving at the grebe that caused the bird in my photos to start the Crash-dive. It was the height of the splashing water behind the grebe caught my eye. The grebe’s tail is that dark triangular shape just in front of the water droplets.<\/p>\n

\"Pied-billedPied-billed Grebe splashing water in a Crash-dive \u2013 Nikon D500, f8, 1\/1600, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I kept my camera locked onto the grebe and fired away. In the second photo of the series, the splashing water reached even higher. The grebe’s tail was submerged at this point.<\/p>\n

\"Pied-billedPied-billed Grebe in a faux Crash-dive \u2013 Nikon D500, f8, 1\/1600, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Because the Northern Harrier flew off almost immediately, the Pied-billed Grebe aborted the Crash-dive it had started at this point. I called it a faux dive. Other people might call it a fake out Crash-dive.<\/p>\n

The Pied-billed Grebe did not finish the Crash-dive because it never sank completely below the surface of the water. Seeing and photographing this faux Crash-dive was fascinating. I wanted to share the images I took of this interesting behavior.<\/p>\n

\"AutumnAutumn Pied-billed Grebe and a floating feather \u2013 Nikon D500, f8, 1\/1250, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

This final image is a bonus photo that may or may not feature the same grebe as the one in the three previous images. I liked the photo because of the great eye contact I had with the grebe, but it was the tiny floating feather in front of the bird that held the most appeal for me.<\/p>\n

Overall, I had a marvelous time photographing the Pied-billed Grebes and observing their behavior at the refuge on Monday.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my Pied-billed Grebe photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a great time observing and photographing a Pied-billed Grebe exhibiting Crash-dive behavior at Bear River MBR from the auto tour loop on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":117676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,27,1148,135,26],"tags":[970,14526,4913,4159,14529,4620,4608,5423,877,707,4094,4009,4166,2688,10778,14527,14528,3996,4095],"class_list":["post-117691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-pied-billed-grebes","category-utah","tag-autumn","tag-crash-dive","tag-defensive-behavior","tag-diving","tag-diving-behavior","tag-fall","tag-feather","tag-floating","tag-grebe","tag-grebes-2","tag-marsh","tag-pied-billed-grebe","tag-podilymbus-podiceps","tag-splashing","tag-start","tag-submarine","tag-submarining","tag-water","tag-wetlands"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/pied-billed-grebe-faux-submarining-mia-mcpherson-6543.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-uCf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":50003,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/12\/21\/pied-billed-grebes-with-flying-crayfish-see-food-on-the-wing\/","url_meta":{"origin":117691,"position":0},"title":"Pied-billed Grebes With Flying Crayfish – See Food On The Wing","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Three afternoons ago I captured images of not just one flying crayfish in the air but two of them because of the Pied-billed Grebes capturing and consuming the freshwater crustaceans.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pied-billed Grebe and flying crayfish, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/pied-billed-grebe-flying-crayfish-mia-mcpherson-7770.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/pied-billed-grebe-flying-crayfish-mia-mcpherson-7770.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/pied-billed-grebe-flying-crayfish-mia-mcpherson-7770.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/pied-billed-grebe-flying-crayfish-mia-mcpherson-7770.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":49945,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/12\/18\/a-brief-but-aggressive-encounter-between-pied-billed-grebes\/","url_meta":{"origin":117691,"position":1},"title":"Brief But Aggressive Encounter Between Pied-Billed Grebes","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This aggressive encounter between the two Pied-billed Grebes only lasted a few seconds and if I hadn't been paying attention I would have missed photographing it.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Two Pied-billed Grebes fighting, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pied-billed-grebes-fighting-mia-mcpherson-6700.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pied-billed-grebes-fighting-mia-mcpherson-6700.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pied-billed-grebes-fighting-mia-mcpherson-6700.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pied-billed-grebes-fighting-mia-mcpherson-6700.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":118683,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/12\/02\/immature-pied-billed-grebe-being-chased-and-other-grebe-behaviors\/","url_meta":{"origin":117691,"position":2},"title":"Immature Pied-billed Grebe Being Chased And Other Grebe Behaviors","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 2, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week, I photographed an immature Pied-billed Grebe being chased by an adult at my local pond. I observed some other interesting grebe behaviors as well.","rel":"","context":"In "Pied-billed Grebes"","block_context":{"text":"Pied-billed Grebes","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/grebes\/pied-billed-grebes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Pied-billed Grebe being chased, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/pied-billed-grebe-immature-chased-mia-mcpherson-8805.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/pied-billed-grebe-immature-chased-mia-mcpherson-8805.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/pied-billed-grebe-immature-chased-mia-mcpherson-8805.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/pied-billed-grebe-immature-chased-mia-mcpherson-8805.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":173109,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2026\/03\/26\/pied-billed-grebe-eating-a-feather-at-sequoyah-nwr\/","url_meta":{"origin":117691,"position":3},"title":"Pied-billed Grebe Eating A Feather At Sequoyah NWR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 26, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"On one of my recent trips to Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge this week, I had fun photographing a Pied-billed Grebe eating a feather at Miner's Cove.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pied-billed Grebe eating a feather, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/pied-billed-grebe-sequoyah-nwr-mia-mcpherson-1310.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/pied-billed-grebe-sequoyah-nwr-mia-mcpherson-1310.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/pied-billed-grebe-sequoyah-nwr-mia-mcpherson-1310.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/pied-billed-grebe-sequoyah-nwr-mia-mcpherson-1310.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":50306,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/12\/27\/photographing-pied-billed-grebes-with-crayfish\/","url_meta":{"origin":117691,"position":4},"title":"Photographing Pied-billed Grebes With Crayfish – Oh What Fun Can Be Had","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The funniest photo I took yesterday, the one that made me laugh out loud the hardest, was when a crayfish landed on the Pied-billed Grebe's head after the bird shook it hard.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Crayfish on a Pied-billed Grebe's head, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/pied-billed-grebe-cray-fish-mia-mcpherson-2088.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/pied-billed-grebe-cray-fish-mia-mcpherson-2088.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/pied-billed-grebe-cray-fish-mia-mcpherson-2088.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/pied-billed-grebe-cray-fish-mia-mcpherson-2088.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":45002,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/02\/16\/pied-billed-grebes-in-flight\/","url_meta":{"origin":117691,"position":5},"title":"Pied-billed Grebes in Flight – Rare Sight to See & Photograph","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 16, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday afternoon I was at my local pond where I photographed not one but two Pied-billed Grebes in flight. This is rarely seen and rarely photographed.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pied-billed Grebe in flight, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pied-pilled-grebe-flight-mia-mcpherson-8500.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pied-pilled-grebe-flight-mia-mcpherson-8500.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pied-pilled-grebe-flight-mia-mcpherson-8500.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pied-pilled-grebe-flight-mia-mcpherson-8500.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}