Western Grebe

The courtship display of the Western Grebe is among the most elaborate breeding rituals of North American wildlife. During the 'weed dance,' the male and female both raise their torsos gently out of the water, caressing each other with aquatic vegetation held in their long, rapier-like bills. The pair's bond is fully reinforced by the 'rushing' phase, during which the birds glance at one another before exploding into a sprint across the water's surface. Each grebe stands high, with its wings held back and its cobra-like head and neck rigid, until the race ends with the pair breaking the water's surface in a headfirst dive.

Aechmophorus occidentalis

I.D.: Sexes similar: long, slender neck; black upperparts, from the base of the bill to the tail; white underparts, from the chin through the belly; long, thin, yellow bill; white cheek; red eyes, surrounded in black.

Size: L 20-24 in. (51-61 cm).

Range: common spring and fall migrant throughout the Rockies; locally common summer breeder in the central U.S. Rockies.

Habitat: Breeding: large lakes with dense areas of emergent vegetation or thick mats of floating aquatic plants. In migration: large, deep lakes.

Nesting: typically on the Great Plains and in the boreal forest; colonial; floating nest, built of aquatic vegetation, is anchored to submerged plants; pair incubates the eggs for 23 days.

Feeding: gleans the water's surface and dives for small fish and aquatic invertebrates.

Voice: high-pitched crreeet-crreeet.

Similar Species: Double-crested Cormorant: underparts are not clean white. Common Loon: shorter, stocky neck. Eared, Horned and Red-necked grebes: much smaller. Clark's Grebe: white around the eyes; orange-yellow bill; species ranges overlap in the Great Plains.