This was an exciting day on the lake, not just for the grebes but for me as well! A number of horned grebes were already on this small lake in the middle of Yellowknife, happily paired up for the summer. This group however hadn’t quite sorted out who was who and the battle for attention and dominance was on.
Horned grebes are monomorphic meaning that the male and female look similar so I can’t say for sure whether it was the females fighting or the males. There wasn’t a lot of vocalization going on but there was certainly a lot of splashing. The birds chased each other through the water attempting to mount one another, bite each other and push each other under the water. I was fortunate to be so close to the action.
Horned grebes breed in shallow lakes and ponds where they dive for crustaceans and insects. They usually form monogamous pairs that take equal responsibility for egg sitting, feeding and raising their chicks. No wonder these three were fighting for a pair bond, single parenting is hard!
The oldest recorded Horned Grebe was at least 5 years, 11 months old when it was recaptured and re-released during banding operations in the Northwest Territories, Canada, in 2007, the same place where it had been banded in 2002. *