Mallard stealing crawfish from Grebes

[rjpa...@gmail.com]

In the shallow bay at the end of the Boulder West trailhead yesterday, our Boulder Bird Club group observed something very strange.  A mother Pied-billed Grebe was actively hunting and feeding what looked like small crayfish to her three young (they still had head stripes).  They were being followed by a lone Mallard, which would aggressively pursue a young grebe after it had been given the crawfish by its mother until it was able to snatch the crawfish from the young grebe's mouth.  The grebes would dive and thus lose the Mallard for a moment, but as soon as it popped up, the Mallard was after it again.  This happened three times within 15 minutes.  I thought Mallards were vegetarians!

[Peter Ruprecht]

What a fascinating observation.  Per https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mallard/lifehistory , Mallards eat a good deal of animal matter, mainly invertebrates, during the summer.  In my experience, it's rare to see them eat any critter that's bigger than a half-inch or so.  However, a couple years ago I watched in amazement as a drake used its bill to dispatch a medium-sized bullfrog and then struggled for several minutes to swallow it.

Peter Ruprecht

Superior

On Thu, Aug 26, 2021 at 1:11 PM rjpa...@gmail.com <rjpa...@gmail.com> wrote:

In the shallow bay at the end of the Boulder West trailhead yesterday, our Boulder Bird Club group observed something very strange.  A mother Pied-billed Grebe was actively hunting and feeding what looked like small crayfish to her three young (they still had head stripes).  They were being followed by a lone Mallard, which would aggressively pursue a young grebe after it had been given the crawfish by its mother until it was able to snatch the crawfish from the young grebe's mouth.  The grebes would dive and thus lose the Mallard for a moment, but as soon as it popped up, the Mallard was after it again.  This happened three times within 15 minutes.  I thought Mallards were vegetarians!

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[Valentina Roumi]

These shots taken recently at Cottonwood Lake in Boulder.  It definitely swallowed the frog..

-Valentina Roumi

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[Wayne Wathen]

Nice photos and thanks for sharing.  To my bad eyes at 80 years old,  It looks like the mallard has a frog and not crawfish.  

Wayne Wathen

Highlands Ranch, CO

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From: cob...@googlegroups.com <cob...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Valentina Roumi <valenti...@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 28, 2021 12:20 PM
To: Peter Ruprecht <prup...@gmail.com>
Cc: Colorado Birds <cob...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [cobirds] Mallard stealing crawfish from Grebes

 

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