{"id":28343,"date":"2014-12-09T16:48:43","date_gmt":"2014-12-09T23:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=28343"},"modified":"2014-12-09T16:48:43","modified_gmt":"2014-12-09T23:48:43","slug":"pied-billed-grebe-investigating-a-potential-feather-for-swallowing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2014\/12\/09\/pied-billed-grebe-investigating-a-potential-feather-for-swallowing\/","title":{"rendered":"Pied-billed Grebe Investigating A Potential Feather For Swallowing"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve posted previously about grebes swallowing feathers as a digestive aid.\u00a0 Yesterday I photographed a Pied-billed Grebe with that very intention.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

1\/2500, f\/5.6, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark ll, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Here it looks like the grebe might be pulling a small fish up by the tail but in reality it’s a small feather.\u00a0\u00a0 The grebe nibbled at the feather for a few moments, obviously evaluating it for consumption.\u00a0 Most of the feathers they swallow are small down feathers pulled out of their own flanks during preening.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Larger feathers with a stiff quill are rejected.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

1\/2000, f\/5.6, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark ll, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0And this feather, though it was fairly small, had a quill.\u00a0 The grebe held the feather by the tip\u00a0of its bill…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

1\/2500, f\/5.6, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark ll, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

and gave it a violent shake which sent water droplets flying.\u00a0 I never did see the bird swallow the feather (as I have many times before) and I’m pretty sure that it was rejected because of its size and attached quill.<\/p>\n

In the past I’ve published three posts about grebes (several species) eating feathers.\u00a0 If you have the interest, here’s a link<\/a> to one of the older\u00a0posts that many current\u00a0readers of my blog\u00a0may not have seen.\u00a0 It’s an interesting example of adaptation and survival.<\/p>\n

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

I’ve posted previously about grebes swallowing feathers as a digestive aid. Yesterday I photographed a Pied-billed Grebe with that very intention.<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28344,"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":[334,395,359],"tags":[1272,251,993],"class_list":["post-28343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds","category-miscellaneous","category-pied-billed-grebes","tag-anas-clypeata","tag-pied-billed-grebe","tag-podilymbus-podiceps"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/pied-billed-grebe-4528-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-7n9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28343","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=28343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}