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<\/p>\nI’ve photographed this feeding behavior before but\u00a0those photos have\u00a0never been this clear and detailed.<\/p>\n
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1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n The Pied-billed Grebes at a pond near my home are really chowing down on crayfish recently. In my experience with\u00a0this species at other locations they\u00a0overwhelmingly prefer to eat fish\u00a0but at this pond their prey is nearly always crayfish (crawdads if you prefer). I’ve documented that preference many dozens of times in recent weeks and I do have some interesting photos of it. But due to a variety of factors including poor light angle, distance from my\u00a0subjects and the incredible speed of these small birds as they\u00a0manipulate and shake their prey I’ve never been able to get really clear and detailed shots of the\u00a0portion of the behavior I’m most interested in – the removal of the\u00a0claws before swallowing what’s left of the crayfish.<\/p>\n But yesterday I did,\u00a0with this grebe and this crayfish. The grebe was close, the light angle was good,\u00a0the bird\u00a0didn’t turn its back on me during much of the\u00a0frenzied feeding activity\u00a0and I had (just) enough shutter speed to freeze the action.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A tight crop of the previous image allows us to see much better detail. The still struggling crayfish is being held\u00a0securely in the grebe’s beak as it attempts to defend itself with its\u00a0right claw (beneath the chin of the bird).\u00a0For some reason the\u00a0position of the left claw isn’t really clear to me but as you’ll see in the next photo it has to be there somewhere.<\/p>\n This may be the first time I’ve seen the tongue of a Pied-billed\u00a0Grebe this clearly.<\/p>\n Crayfish\u00a0claws\u00a0are capable of\u00a0inflicting serious pain and even damage to a bird this size so the grebes are extremely leery of them. Cornell’s Birds of North America Online includes a detailed account of typical Pied-billed Grebe feeding behavior when it comes to dealing with those claws, including the following excerpt:<\/p>\n And the grebes always<\/em> seem to follow that script to the letter. Immediately after this photo was taken the grebe dipped the crayfish into the water in order to grasp one of the claws in its bill and then four frames later…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n it violently shook the crustacean which\u00a0“amputated” the claw and sent the now one-clawed crayfish flying across the water’s surface.\u00a0I’ve never seen a grebe swallow one of the\u00a0amputated claws so\u00a0I presume they discard\u00a0them. Immediately after this shot was taken the grebe retrieved the crayfish, removed the other claw, and then swallowed the little lobster-wannabe.<\/p>\n Because I’m so\u00a0fascinated\u00a0by bird behaviors I was happy to get these photos but they’re the only interesting shots I got during that 75 minute session\u00a0at the pond. This bird and a chance encounter with good friend and fellow bird photographer Deedee OBrien (Deedee and I\u00a0go way back to our days working with Terry Tempest Williams at the\u00a0Utah Museum of Natural History in the ’80s\u00a0so it’s always a\u00a0joy to see her) were the only high points of my time at the pond.<\/p>\n I was delighted with both.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve photographed this feeding behavior before but those photos have never been this clear and detailed.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/pied-billed-grebe-2803-huge-crop-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"pied-billed-grebe-2803-huge-crop-ron-dudley\\"")
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