Clark's Grebe, closer

Aechmophorus clarkii

Clark's Grebe · San Diego · 6 March 2026

A Clark's Grebe close up on a San Diego lake in March, wintering on the coast after a summer on the marshy lakes of the interior West, and close enough to settle the identification. It shares the lake with its twin the Western, which is why the eye and the bill have to be checked bird by bird.

The red eye sits in white, with the black of the cap stopping above it, and the bill is bright orange-yellow. On the near-identical Western Grebe the black comes down around the eye and the bill is dull greenish. Grebes are so thoroughly built for swimming and diving - legs set far back on the body, lobed rather than webbed toes - that they are nearly helpless walking on land, and both species nest on floating platforms of waterweed rather than come ashore at all.