English: Pied-billed grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) feeding a crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) to its chicks.

Location: Laguna Lake, Fullerton, CA, USA

Identification: The crayfish species identification was based only on the fact that it seems to be the only crayfish species occurring in the area where the photograph was taken.

Comment: Note that the legs are missing off the crayfish. It was common for the chicks not to be able to swallow the crayfish when it was first offered to them. The mother would recapture the crayfish when it escaped from the chicks and while the mother was holding the crayfish a the chicks would pick at the crayfish legs until they were all removed. After this and after perhaps a few more tries a chick would succeed in swallowing the crayfish (always tail first while we were observing the birds). We observed the mother feeding small fish to the chicks as well.