{"id":43217,"date":"2016-11-22T05:48:03","date_gmt":"2016-11-22T12:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=43217"},"modified":"2025-10-28T13:08:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T18:08:09","slug":"immature-pied-billed-grebe-running-across-the-water-with-prey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/11\/22\/immature-pied-billed-grebe-running-across-the-water-with-prey\/","title":{"rendered":"Immature Pied-billed Grebe running across the water with prey"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ImmatureImmature Pied-billed Grebe being chased over the water – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 400, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Last month I captured a series of images of an immature Pied-billed Grebe running across the water with prey in its bill at Farmington Bay WMA.<\/p>\n

The reason it was running across the top of the water was because it was being chased by another Pied-billed Grebe that was just outside the frame of all of the photos on this post.<\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature Pied-billed Grebe rushing across the water with prey – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 400, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

This immature grebe had caught a fairly large weather loach when the other grebe noticed it and started to chase the young grebe.<\/p>\n

Pied-billed Grebes, indeed all grebe species, have a very hard time walking on the ground<\/span><\/a> because their legs are set so far on the back of their bodies but that doesn’t seem to hinder them at ALL when they run across the surface of the water.<\/p>\n

The grebes move so fast when they are running that it is hard to track them and keep them in my viewfinder.<\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature Pied-billed Grebe scooting across the water with prey – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 400, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

This immature Pied-billed Grebe was able to evade the other grebe chasing it and eventually swallowed the weather loach whole.<\/p>\n

The Latin genus name for \u201cgrebe\u201d means \u201cfeet at the buttocks\u201d and the first image at the top certainly shows that well!<\/p>\n

And the chase is part of kleptoparasitism. Kleptoparasitism<\/span><\/a> is a form of feeding in which one bird or animal deliberately takes food from another.<\/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":"

Last month I captured a series of images of an immature Pied-billed Grebe running across the water with prey in its bill at Farmington Bay WMA. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":162022,"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_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,1022,697,135,26],"tags":[877,707,4067,5638,4094,4009,4166,4106,4148,4298,3996,5526,4095,4193],"class_list":["post-43217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-pied-billed-grebes","category-utah","tag-grebe","tag-grebes-2","tag-immature","tag-kleptoparasitism","tag-marsh","tag-pied-billed-grebe","tag-podilymbus-podiceps","tag-prey","tag-running","tag-rushing","tag-water","tag-weather-loach","tag-wetlands","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t