{"id":6181,"date":"2012-06-25T07:11:47","date_gmt":"2012-06-25T13:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=6181"},"modified":"2012-09-02T15:44:29","modified_gmt":"2012-09-02T21:44:29","slug":"western-grebe-chick-a-lesson-learned-in-feather-eating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2012\/06\/25\/western-grebe-chick-a-lesson-learned-in-feather-eating\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Grebe Chick – A Lesson Learned In Feather Eating"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most grebe species are well known for feather-eating and the Western Grebe is certainly no exception.\u00a0 I’ve seen and photographed them gobbling down feathers multiple times.\u00a0 While the purpose of such behavior remains unproven it is suspected that the feathers enable more efficient digestion of fish bones and aid in removing digestive parasites.\u00a0 I’ve discussed this in further detail and provided more images of the behavior here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"western-grebe-1220-ron-dudley\"<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/2000, f\/8, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/p>\n

The feathers on\u00a0their flanks and scapulars are in almost constant molt and when grooming dislodges them they are\u00a0deliberately swallowed.\u00a0 Often, as was the case here, the feather is floating on the surface of the water and the grebe simply\u00a0snatches it up as it floats by.<\/p>\n

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\"western-grebe-1224-ron-dudley\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a01\/2000, f\/8, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/p>\n

But this time the feather was fed to the chick on the\u00a0back of the parent.\u00a0 Adults begin feeding feathers to their offspring on the first day of their lives.\u00a0 BNA reports that researchers have found over 300 feathers in the stomachs of individual chicks that were no more than three days old.<\/p>\n

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\"western-grebe-1021-ron-dudley\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a01\/1600, f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/p>\n

But of course not just any old feather will do.\u00a0 It must be small, soft and downy and without a stiff quill but apparently this is a lesson that the chicks must learn for themselves.\u00a0 As soon as the youngsters begin to make occasional forays off the backs of their parents and into open water they begin to experiment with feathers they find floating on the water.\u00a0\u00a0A few days\u00a0ago I spotted this\u00a0chick making a bee-line for a floating feather…<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"western-grebe-1023-ron-dudley\"<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/1600, f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/p>\n

\u00a0which it picked up…<\/p>\n

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\"western-grebe-1033-ron-dudley\"<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/2000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/p>\n

\u00a0and “analyzed”\u00a0for perhaps 5-7 seconds by manipulating it in its beak.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"western-grebe-1045-ron-dudley\"<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/1250, f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/p>\n

But ultimately the battered and bruised\u00a0feather was rejected and I think I know why.\u00a0 This particular specimen was simply a bit too large and the quill too stiff, especially for such a young bird.\u00a0 It likely would have caused more problems than it would have solved.<\/p>\n

This is the only time I’ve seen a grebe, adult or chick, reject a feather after picking it up.\u00a0 The adults seem know which feathers are appropriate for consumption – a lesson the youngsters apparently must learn through life experience.<\/p>\n

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

Most grebe species are well known for feather-eating and the Western Grebe is certainly no exception.\u00a0 I’ve seen and photographed them gobbling down feathers multiple times.\u00a0 While the purpose of such behavior remains unproven it is suspected that the feathers enable more efficient digestion of fish bones and aid in removing digestive parasites.\u00a0 I’ve discussed this in further detail and provided more images of the behavior here.   \u00a01\/2000, f\/8, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc The feathers on\u00a0their flanks and scapulars are in almost constant molt and when grooming dislodges them they are\u00a0deliberately swallowed.\u00a0 Often, as was the case here, the feather is floating on the surface of the water and the grebe simply\u00a0snatches it up as it floats by.     \u00a0\u00a01\/2000, f\/8, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc But this time the feather was fed to the chick on the\u00a0back of the parent.\u00a0 Adults begin feeding feathers to their offspring on the first day of their lives.\u00a0 BNA reports that researchers have found over 300 feathers in the stomachs of individual chicks that were no more than three days old.     \u00a0\u00a01\/1600, f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc But of course not just any old feather will do.\u00a0 It must be small, soft and downy and without a stiff quill but apparently this is a lesson that the chicks must learn for themselves.\u00a0 As soon as the youngsters begin to make occasional forays off the backs of their parents and into open water they begin to experiment with feathers they…<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,334,392,366],"tags":[731,49,481,747,322],"class_list":["post-6181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bird-behaviors","category-birds","category-feeding-bird-behaviors","category-western-grebes","tag-aechmophorus-occidentalis","tag-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","tag-chick","tag-feather-eating","tag-western-grebe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-1BH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6181","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=6181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6181\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}