{"id":27779,"date":"2015-08-24T05:17:53","date_gmt":"2015-08-24T11:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=27779"},"modified":"2025-07-23T10:11:58","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T15:11:58","slug":"western-grebes-and-their-young-at-bear-river-national-wildlife-refuge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/08\/24\/western-grebes-and-their-young-at-bear-river-national-wildlife-refuge\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Grebes And Their Young At Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JuvenileJuvenile Western Grebe and golden reflections – Nikon D810, f6.3, 1\/2500, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

There were plenty of Western Grebes to be seen and photographed yesterday morning at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a> and I took tons of images of them. Nine hundred and fifty images to be exact. The young bird above was close to its parents but I was able to get just it in a few frames. The light tip on its bill will fade as the bill grows.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAn adult Western Grebe with two of its young – Nikon D810, f8, 1\/2000, ISO 640, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Juvenile Western Grebes are back-brooded by the adults until about 8 weeks or age or slightly longer. This frame shows one chick on the back of the adult and one swimming up to try to join its sibling.<\/p>\n

\"YoungYoung Western Grebe riding on an adult – Nikon D810, f8, 1\/1600, ISO 640, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The young Western Grebes have path on their crowns that can change from a yellowish color to reddish with red meaning they are excited about food or from being separated from its parents.<\/p>\n

\"WesternWestern Grebe chicks about to get dumped into the water – Nikon D810, f8, 1\/1600, ISO 640, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Adult Western Grebes<\/span><\/a> will wing flap while the chicks are riding on it to take a break from back-brooding. The adult will raise its body up…<\/p>\n

\"WesternAdult Western Grebe wing flap with chicks still on its back – Nikon D810, f8, 1\/2000, ISO 640, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Then flap its wings and the young will slide down the parent’s back into the water. It is a little hard to see but in this frame one chicks eyes and bill is visible where the wing of the adult joins its body.<\/p>\n

\"WesternWestern Grebe chicks after being dumped into the water – Nikon D810, f8, 1\/1600, ISO 640, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Water seems to stimulate the young to defecate and then they try to climb right back onto the adults back or the back of the other adult. I had hoped to see the adults feed these chicks yesterday to capture that behavior but they didn’t feed them at all while I photographed this family of grebes.<\/p>\n

I had a great time with these grebes yesterday morning. I also photographed more Virginia Rails, herons, gulls, egrets, wrens and one Long-tailed Weasel.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

There were plenty of Western Grebes to be seen and photographed yesterday morning at Bear River National Wildlife Refuge and I took tons of images of them. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":150673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[124,27,1148,26,161],"tags":[4004,699,1195,4134,4068,4593,9675,877,707,4067,4071,56,4094,2315,3996,4014,4095,4489,4193],"class_list":["post-27779","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-utah","category-western-grebes","tag-adult","tag-aechmophorus-occidentalis","tag-back-brooding","tag-chick","tag-chicks","tag-crown-patch","tag-dumped","tag-grebe","tag-grebes-2","tag-immature","tag-juvenile","tag-juveniles-2","tag-marsh","tag-summer-3","tag-water","tag-western-grebe","tag-wetlands","tag-wing-flap","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/western-grebe-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-0954.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-7e3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":101210,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/03\/29\/clarks-and-western-grebe-images\/","url_meta":{"origin":27779,"position":0},"title":"Clark’s And Western Grebe Images","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"On my trip up to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge last week I was delighted to see and hear both Clark's and Western Grebe species from the auto tour loop.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Spring Clark's Grebe close up, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/clarks-grebe-spring-mia-mcpherson-5961.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/clarks-grebe-spring-mia-mcpherson-5961.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/clarks-grebe-spring-mia-mcpherson-5961.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/clarks-grebe-spring-mia-mcpherson-5961.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":116223,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/09\/24\/demure-looking-western-grebe\/","url_meta":{"origin":27779,"position":1},"title":"Demure Looking Western Grebe","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 24, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week, I photographed this demure looking Western Grebe on one of the water units from the auto tour loop at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Demure looking Western Grebe at Bear River MBR, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/western-grebe-demure-adult-mia-mcpherson-0816.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/western-grebe-demure-adult-mia-mcpherson-0816.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/western-grebe-demure-adult-mia-mcpherson-0816.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/western-grebe-demure-adult-mia-mcpherson-0816.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/western-grebe-on-nest-mia-mcpherson-4541.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/western-grebe-on-nest-mia-mcpherson-4541.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/western-grebe-on-nest-mia-mcpherson-4541.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/western-grebe-on-nest-mia-mcpherson-4541.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8857,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/07\/12\/western-grebe-at-bear-river-national-wildlife-refuge\/","url_meta":{"origin":27779,"position":3},"title":"Western Grebe at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The other day when I photographed the Black-crowned Night Heron at Bear River National Wildlife Refuge I also photographed some Clark's and Western Grebes, I found these two images of this Western Grebe interesting and wanted to post them.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Western Grebe head on at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/western-grebe-head-on-mia-mcpherson-4171.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/western-grebe-head-on-mia-mcpherson-4171.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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