Clark's Grebe
Aechmophorus clarkii
Clark's Grebe · San Diego · 6 March 2026
A Clark's Grebe on the water in San Diego in March, the bill a dagger and the eye a bead of red. It is a bird of the western lakes, breeding in colonies on floating nests among the reeds and wintering on the coast, and the lake here holds both it and its twin the Western.
The bright orange-yellow bill and a black cap that stops cleanly above the red eye - rather than swallowing it, as on the Western - are what separate the two. The bill is a dagger, not a hook: grebes spear fish underwater rather than grab them, diving from the surface and swimming the pursuit almost entirely submerged.
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