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Pied-billed Grebe Life History

Habitat

Lakes and PondsPied-billed Grebes live on bodies of flat or sluggish, fresh to slightly brackish water, at altitudes from sea level to about 8,000 feet. They forage in open water but construct their floating nests using materials and anchors of aquatic vegetation and/or dense stands of emergent vegetation—plants that root underwater with leaves and stems that extend into air. Habitat types include freshwater wetlands, wet fields, bays, sloughs, marshes, lakes, slow-moving rivers, and even sewage ponds. Pied-billed Grebes can nest in moderately to heavily populated areas. They occupy similar habitats during migration and winter.Back to top

Food

Aquatic invertebratesPied-billed Grebes eat mostly crustaceans (particularly crayfish) and small fish, which they capture and crush with their stout bills and strong jaws. Overall, these opportunistic feeders consume a great variety of prey items, large and small, depending on what’s available. Collecting most of their food underwater during foraging dives, they eat crabs, shrimp, snails, mussels, beetles, dragonfly nymphs, and aquatic insects and their larvae. In some parts of their range, Pied-billed Grebes go after leeches, frogs and tadpoles. Among this grebe’s most common fish prey are carp, minnows, catfish, sculpins, killifish, sticklebacks, gizzard shad, and sunfishes. Pied-billed Grebes in the fishless wetlands of Manitoba kill and eat tiger salamanders.Back to top

Nesting

Nest Placement

FloatingPied-billed Grebes typically situate their nests among tall emergent vegetation; sometimes they nest among lower-growing plants. Both male and female may take part in selecting the site, favoring locations with water deeper than about 9 inches, which allows for escape, feeding, and nest platform construction.

Nest Description

Like other grebes, the Pied-billed Grebe creates an open bowl nest on a platform of floating vegetation. The crude circular platform may be placed atop a lily leaf or built up from buoyant material, such as the stems of bulrushes and water lilies. Other added material may include Eurasian water-milfoil, sago pondweed, stonewort, cattails, and small sticks. Both sexes build the nest, and can construct a platform that will support an egg in as little as 1 day. Construction normally starts 3 to 5 days before egg-laying and continues during and after laying. The birds collect soft, flexible, fresh or partly decomposed plant material from beneath the water and clip off stiffer material near the surface. The nest bowl is 4–5 inches in diameter and about an inch deep, and may be expanded during egg-laying period to accommodate additional eggs.

Nesting Facts

Clutch Size:2-10 eggs
Number of Broods:1-2 broods
Egg Length:1.5-2.0 in (3.8-5 cm)
Egg Width:1.1-1.3 in (2.7-3.2 cm)
Incubation Period:23-27 days
Egg Description:Bluish white to greenish white, rarely turquoise, and unmarked.
Condition at Hatching:Downy and active, the chicks leave the nest soon after hatching and climb onto the adult's back where they are brooded during their first week of life.
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Behavior

Surface DivePied-billed Grebes forage in water among aquatic plants and beneath mats of floating vegetation. They usually dive for food, but occasionally pluck insects from foliage, the water’s surface, or the air. They sometimes feed near moving herons and egrets. Pied-billed Grebes escape danger by “crash-diving”—plunging with head and tail raised above the belly, making a splash. They can also dive head first, or simply sink quietly out of view, leaving no trace. Parents dive with young clamped under their wings; occasionally a chick accidentally pops out. These grebes often avoid danger by submerging, crocodile-style, with just the eyes and nostrils above the surface. During breeding season, adult Pied-billed Grebes (especially males) chase and attack members of their own species as well as other waterbirds, often attacking from underwater. Courting adults raise their breasts partially out of the water, jerk their heads toward each other and perform pirouettes. In another courtship ceremony, one adult races along just beneath the surface, creating ripples that trace its underwater path. Pied-billed Grebes need a long running-flapping start to take off from water.Back to top

Conservation

Low Concern

Pied-billed Grebes are widespread and fairly common in most of the U.S. and southern Canada, and overall, populations were stable between 1966 and 2019, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey. Partners in Flight estimates the global breeding population at 3.1 million and rates them 7 out of 20 on the Continental Concern Score, indicating a species of low conservation concern.

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Credits

Dunne, P. (2006). Pete Dunne's essential field guide companion. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York, USA.

Kushlan, J. A., M. J. Steinkamp, K. C. Parsons, J. Capp, M. A. Cruz, M. Coulter, I. Davidson, L. Dickson, N. Edelson, R. Elliott, R. M. Erwin, S. Hatch, S. Kress, R. Milko, S. Miller, K. Mills, R. Paul, R. Phillips, J. E. Saliva, W. Sydeman, J. Trapp, J. Wheeler and K. Wohl (2002). Waterbird conservation for the Americas: The North American waterbird conservation plan, version 1. Washington, DC, USA.

Lutmerding, J. A. and A. S. Love. (2020). Longevity records of North American birds. Version 2020. Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Bird Banding Laboratory 2020.

Muller, Martin J. and Robert W. Storer. (1999). Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps), version 2.0. In The Birds of North America (P. G. Rodewald, editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York, USA.

Partners in Flight. (2020). Avian Conservation Assessment Database, version 2020.

Sauer, J. R., D. K. Niven, J. E. Hines, D. J. Ziolkowski Jr., K. L. Pardieck, J. E. Fallon, and W. A. Link (2019). The North American Breeding Bird Survey, Results and Analysis 1966–2019. Version 2.07.2019. USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD, USA.

Sibley, D. A. (2014). The Sibley Guide to Birds, second edition. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY, USA.

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