Central Florida, small brown diving duck. (1 Viewer)

[RTullis]

I apologize. I don't have a picture. All I had was my phone, and it can't take images of something so far away to any use. So I'll do my best to describe it.

Anyway, I was walking around my new office building I work in, which happens to have a nice large pond next to it, when I noticed a few little ducks swimming around. They're about half the size of a mallard (a flock of mallards landed in the pond so the size comparison wasn't so hard to make). The ducks are a medley of browns, their under-feathers seeming almost yellow (maybe because they were dipping in the water). The beak seemed thinner than a mallards and dark brown/black, but that could also be because of their size/water. Anyway, they started diving. I mean, just wouldn't stop. They'd stay in place, then completely submerge under water for about 10 entire seconds before coming back up.

I tried looking it up under Florida ducks, but it's hard to tell since the size is one of the major characteristics of it for me. It's been swimming back in the pond for the past few days (the mallards have only shown up today to rest temporarily I think). Anyway, they usually dive closer to shore, and I usually seem them come back up with a worm or something else small and dangly.

Any guesses are going to better than mine, so they're welcome,

Thank you,

Ryan

 

[birding maniac]

Ruddy duck maybe?

 

[birding maniac]

Or perhaps pied billed grebe?

 

[RTullis]

I think the pied-billed grebe might be the winner. I'm reading that some sites say it "sinks" underwater, but I've yet to see that. To me, it looks like it just straightens up, tilts forward and dives for a long period of time before re-emerging. Color-wise it matches, as well as size. When I walked towards it, instead of diving to get away, it simple paddled further out to the pond. It would have been a juvenile or in non-breeding plumage, because the ring hadn't appeared on it.

I'm just surprised to see it's a grebe, though. Haha. This looks pretty close to it. http://wanamassa.us/birds2006/images/PICT1223PiedBilledGrebeF.jpg although I couldn't get that good of a view (simply because I couldn't get so close). And that, it says, is a pie-billed grebe. =)

Thank you for the help!

 

[birding maniac]

In winter the black ring that gives them their beam (pied billed) disappears, so it seems this is a good option. Seems to fit the description better than ruddy duck. However, with my experience only being with a lone bird, I'm not sure how typical more than ome is.

 

[grebefeet9]

here are some possibilities:1: ruddy duck, 2: pied billed grebe 3: female hooded merganser.

 

[RJP]

I think the pied-billed grebe might be the winner. I'm reading that some sites say it "sinks" underwater, but I've yet to see that. To me, it looks like it just straightens up, tilts forward and dives for a long period of time before re-emerging.

Pied-billeds do not normally do this "sinking" routine - they dive very similar to a diving duck. I see them often (pond behind my office at work) and have only witnessed the sinking once or twice, when I think the bird was feeling threatened.