Clark's Grebe

Aechmophorus clarkii · Waterfowl

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.

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.

Clark's Grebe, closer

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.

Clark's Grebe

San Diego, 6 March 2026

A Clark's Grebe on a lake in San Diego, wintering on the coast after a summer on the marshy lakes of the interior West. Grebes are so specialised for diving that they can barely walk - the legs are set right at the back of the body, superb for propulsion and useless on land - and they build floating nests for that reason, and carry their young on their backs.

Told from the near-identical Western Grebe by two things visible here: the black cap stops above the red eye rather than swallowing it, and the bill is bright orange rather than dull yellow-green. The two were treated as one species until 1985.