Pied-billed Grebe

About the Pied-billed Grebe

The Pied-billed Grebe is the little brown diving bird on almost every quiet pond in Texas - often mistaken for a duckling at first glance, until it performs its signature trick: sinking slowly straight down like a submarine, barely leaving a ripple. Grebes can compress their feathers to squeeze out trapped air, letting them control their buoyancy with eerie precision.

The name comes from the breeding season bill: a stout, pale, chicken-like bill wearing a bold black ring - "pied" - which fades in winter. The bill is a serious tool, stout enough to crush crawfish, one of the species' favorite foods along with small fish and aquatic insects.

Grebes are barely land birds at all. Their legs are set so far back that they can hardly walk, and they build floating nests anchored to marsh vegetation, covering the eggs with wet plants when they leave. Striped chicks ride on the parents' backs, even during dives.

The voice is a surprise: a loud, whooping "cow-cow-cow-cowp" that sounds more like a jungle bird than anything a Texas farm pond should produce. Listen for it in spring cattails - the little submarine has more personality than its plain plumage suggests.