Clark's Grebe
Aechmophorus clarkii
Clark's Grebe · San Diego · 6 March 2026
A Clark's Grebe on a San Diego lake in March, not the Western it was first written up as - and the caption had it backwards. Clark's and Western Grebes share the same lakes across the West, breeding on the big marshy lakes of the interior and wintering on the coast, which is exactly why the eye and the bill have to be checked one bird at a time.
The black cap stops above the eye, leaving the red eye sitting in white, and the bill is a clean orange-yellow; on a Western the black comes down to surround the eye and the bill is duller and greener. The two were only split as separate species in 1985, having previously been treated as colour morphs of one bird.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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