I videoed this Pied-billed Grebe while sitting in my pickup at Charleston Lake in Charleston, Arkansas. Early morning is when this bird becomes most active near the small dam where shad gather in the current and slightly deeper water.
In this clip, the grebe already holds a freshly caught shad at the surface. The video does not show a dive. Instead, it shows how the bird handles and swallows its catch.
Pied-billed Grebes (Podilymbus podiceps) sit very low in the water, almost like a floating cork. The grebe grips the fish crosswise in its bill and repeatedly adjusts its hold. It turns the shad until the head points forward. This process takes patience. The bird pauses, shifts the fish, pauses again, and then slowly works it down.
Shad provide a dependable food source in this area, along with amphibians and aquatic invertebrates beneath the surface. This bird works the same stretch of water during the morning and shows how familiar it is with this feeding area. Its routine looks calm, steady, and methodical.
What stands out in this moment is not a dive, but the careful handling of prey after the catch.
Photography Notes
I stayed in my truck and let the bird come to me. This approach allowed me to record natural feeding behavior without causing any disturbance.
Video works especially well for this type of behavior. A single photo would show the fish in the bill, but the video reveals the slow repositioning, the pauses, and the deliberate movements needed to swallow a fish nearly as long as the bird’s head. I sat quietly and waited while the grebe managed its prey at Charleston Lake.