The early morning light was a beautiful golden orange yesterday morning at Huntley Meadows Park and I was thrilled when I spotted a pair of Pied-billed Grebes (Podilymbus podiceps) and a Bufflehead couple (Bucephala albeola), two species of water birds that I rarely have encountered there.
I took these shots from a pretty good distance away, so I initially wasn’t sure what kind of birds they were. WhenI took a quick look afterwards at a couple of the images, the shapes and markings of these birds were so different from the usual birds that I knew I needed to do a little research. Fortunately they were not hard to find in my identification guide.
Somehow I can’t help but smile when I speak aloud the names of these two birds—they seem a little silly and slightly pejorative, though not overtly rude. I can imagine a grizzled cowboy confronting another and saying, “You’re nothing but a pied-billed grebe,” and the other cowboy responding, “And, you, you’re a bufflehead.” (My favorite bird name that makes a great cowboy cuss word, though, has to be the yellow-bellied sapsucker.)
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
I’ve been accustomed to seeing the least grebe, but this is the first year I’ve actually seen a pied-bill. They are the cutest little birds. The bufflehead is one I’ve never seen. It’s a lovely one — and they both look nice in that light.
I too had never seen a bufflehead. In the Facebook page for Huntley Meadows Park, someone recently posted a shot of a female, so I had in my mind that they might be around. Initially when I say the flash of white, I thought it might be a Hooded Merganser, but the shape and pattern was all wrong.
Your last paragraph had me smiling. Who comes up with these names?
Smiling? I knew there was at least one other person out there who shared my warped sense of humor (or “humour,” as you probably prefer).
I’m with you all the way no matter how you spell it.
I get the pied-billed, but the bufflehead?? I am with Lyle, who dreams up these names! Good looking grebes though Mike!
Thanks, Chris. There indeed are all kinds of crazy names for birds and insects. From time to time I make up my own names when I can’t identify a subject–my names usually make more sense than the “official” name.
I see lots of bids on water but I can never get close enough to know for sure what they are. I’m glad that plants stay put and don’t run or fly away.