![\"western](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/western-grebe-4626-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIt’s a never-ending job for adult Western Grebes as they try to keep their chicks fed while back-brooding them at the same time.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1\/2000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n I photographed this family eleven days ago at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. Here the female on the left has just delivered a small fish to a chick on the back of the male. The food is always delivered and swallowed whole (rather than torn apart first) so when the chicks are small like this they start out with very\u00a0small food items – usually fish but also some insect larvae.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A large crop of the previous image provides a more intimate look at the feeding process and allows us to confirm that the food item really was a tiny fish.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n But these adults had more than one chick to feed – there was a second youngster hidden on the back of the male. Three minutes later\u00a0this second\u00a0food item was delivered but these feeding trips\u00a0can occur as\u00a0often as one or more trips per minute. When the back-brooding parent tires of babysitting it rises up in the water and flaps its wings which dumps the chicks into the drink. They then quickly climb up on the back of the other parent and the roles of the adults have been reversed.<\/p>\n It’s a lot of work keeping those fast-growing youngsters fed.<\/p>\n Western Grebes\u00a0are sexually dimorphic\u00a0so adults can be reliably sexed in the field. Compared to the male the bill of the female (on the left in both images above)\u00a0is shorter and much thinner and the curvature of the mandible gives her bill a somewhat upturned appearance that is lacking in the male.<\/p>\n The female is also smaller than the male but\u00a0that size difference typically isn’t useful in sexing them unless both sexes are seen together.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s a never-ending job for adult Western Grebes as they try to keep their chicks fed while back-brooding them at the same time.<\/p>\n![\"western](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/western-grebe-4626-big-crop-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"western](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/western-grebe-4661-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n