{"id":148011,"date":"2023-12-08T06:07:54","date_gmt":"2023-12-08T13:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=148011"},"modified":"2023-12-08T08:12:20","modified_gmt":"2023-12-08T15:12:20","slug":"a-pied-billed-grebe-and-a-coot-competing-for-the-same-fish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2023\/12\/08\/a-pied-billed-grebe-and-a-coot-competing-for-the-same-fish\/","title":{"rendered":"A Pied-billed Grebe And A Coot Competing For The Same Fish"},"content":{"rendered":"

These two birds duked it out for nearly three minutes.<\/p>\n

Three days ago I posted a photo of a Pied-billed Grebe with a fish curled tightly around its bill<\/a><\/span><\/span> and made the following statement in my introduction – “That morning at Farmington Bay WMA, whenever one of the many Pied-billed Grebes caught a fish there was a lot of competition for it from other grebes, and even from coots<\/span>.” <\/em><\/p>\n

It’s the “and even from coots” part that inspired today’s post, because it reminded me of another event that occurred that same morning on the same pond involving a different Pied-billed Grebe and an American Coot.<\/em><\/p>\n

I published a blog post about that event back in December of 2015 and today’s post is a revision of that post. For this version I’ve added three more photos, edited the text and tweaked the formatting. The action was fast and furious and lasted a long time so some of these photos are decidedly soft, but they’re plenty good enough for documentary purposes. Hell, I was lucky to keep them in the frame, much less keep two skirmishing birds in focus. <\/em><\/p>\n

All photos are presented in the order they were taken.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"pied-billed<\/p>\n

It all began when this Pied-billed Grebe caught a fish. The fish is large enough that the grebe couldn’t swallow it quickly, which allowed enough time for…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"pied-billed<\/p>\n

this coot to swim in and challenge the grebe for the fish. Coots are larger and slower than these grebes but this one was very deliberate and persistent in trying to steal the fish. The grebe would stop for a moment and make tentative attempts at swallowing the fish but the coot just kept on coming and coming and coming. The coot was relentless.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the past I’ve often seen grebes with food dive or run across the water with it to escape a potential food thief but this one…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"pied-billed<\/p>\n

had a different strategy that I don’t fully understand. When the coot would get close, the grebe would release the dead fish into the water where it would begin to sink. I can guess several possible reasons for this strategy but that’s all they’d be, just guesses.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"pied-billed<\/p>\n

In this instance both birds lunged for the fish under the surface at the same time but…<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"pied-billed<\/p>\n

it was the coot that came up with it, which…<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

the grebe was less than pleased about.<\/p>\n

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\"pied-billed<\/p>\n

The coot attempted a get-a-way but the grebe stayed so close it was literally riding the back of the coot. When the grebe’s attempts didn’t work from this side…<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

it tried the other.<\/p>\n

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\"pied-billed<\/p>\n

When the coot slowed, the grebe lunged for the fish but it was dropped into the water so…<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"pied-billed<\/p>\n

the grebe lowered its body in the water and put its head under water to look for it. Here the grebe had just raised its head back up, sans fish.<\/p>\n

I actually like this photo well enough to think it could easily serve as a standalone. With no explanation provided as to what’s going on, it’s just different enough to be interesting and more than a little mysterious. And both birds are sharp.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"pied-billed<\/p>\n

Here the grebe has pulled its head back before plunging it back underwater in another attempt to find the fish first.<\/p>\n

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\"pied-billed<\/p>\n

The grebe had the advantage because it looked with its head underwater, but the coot only looked for the fish from the surface so…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"pied-billed<\/p>\n

it was the grebe that came up with the fish. The grebe tried to make its getaway but…<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"pied-billed<\/p>\n

it didn’t get far before the coot caught up with it again, grabbed the fish…<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"pied-billed<\/p>\n

and yanked it away.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"pied-billed<\/p>\n

But the grebe wasn’t about to throw in the towel. It swam tightly against the body of the coot and waited for another opportunity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"pied-billed<\/p>\n

When that opportunity eventually came..<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"pied-billed<\/p>\n

the grebe snatched the fish from the coot and made yet another get-a-way.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"pied-billed<\/p>\n

This time the grebe had enough time to quickly mash the head of the fish a few times.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"pied-billed<\/p>\n

Then the grebe paused for a moment, almost seeming to dare the coot to make another attempt on the fish before it was swallowed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"pied-billed<\/p>\n

But the coot apparently knew it had been licked and didn’t even try before the grebe gobbled the fish down.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Some folks might be surprised to learn that coots will eat anything other than aquatic vascular plants and algae but they’re actually omnivorous and often consume aquatic invertebrates, tadpoles and fish. They even occasionally eat carrion, something I’ve seen them do several times in the midst of a harsh winter.<\/p>\n

And speaking of winter, it’s snowing as I’m working on this post revision at 5 AM. More much-needed snow for our mountains and at least some in our valleys. We’ll take it.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These two birds duked it out for nearly three minutes. (22 photos)<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1051,5,334,2782,392,394,359],"tags":[1052,6097,1008,7242,7241,311],"class_list":["post-148011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-coots","category-bird-oddities","category-birds","category-farmington-bay-waterfowl-management-area","category-feeding-bird-behaviors","category-fighting-bird-behaviors","category-pied-billed-grebes","tag-american-coot","tag-do-coots-eat-fish","tag-farmington-bay-waterfowl-management-area","tag-fighting-over-a-fish","tag-pied-billed-grrebe","tag-utah-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/pied-billed-grebe-0084-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-Cvh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148011"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148090,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148011\/revisions\/148090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}