Blue Ridge Wildlife Center Patient of the Week: Horned Grebe

When it grebes, it pours!

In less than 48 hours, we admitted a record number of Horned Grebe patients… six birds in just two days.

These little divers showed up immediately after last weekend’s eGREBEgious winter weather.

When roads are wet or icy, they can look just like open water to birds flying overhead. From the sky, shiny asphalt reflects light the same way a pond or river would. For a grebe searching for a safe place to land, it looks perfect.

Unfortunately… it’s a parking lot.

And once they touch down, they’re stuck.

Horned Grebes are built like tiny submarines, not like ducks or songbirds. Their legs sit far back on their bodies, acting like powerful propellers that help them dive and chase fish underwater. It makes them incredible swimmers but terrible walkers.

They can’t push off from solid ground and have to run across the surface of the water to take flight. On pavement or ice, there’s no runway.

So a simple mistaken landing can turn into a dangerous situation fast.

Crash landings often lead to fractures, road rash, or internal injuries. Even uninjured birds are vulnerable to freezing temperatures, predators, or vehicle strikes if they can’t get moving again.

Thankfully, these patients were lucky.

After exams, we found no major injuries. With a warm space, fluids, good meals, and time to restore their waterproofing, all six birds were strong and ready to head back out.

We’re especially grateful to have the Shenandoah River right next door. Because the water keeps flowing, it stays thawed even during deep freezes making it the perfect winter habitat for diving birds like grebes to rest, feed, and continue their migration.

Huge thanks to the finders who stopped to help and safely brought these birds to us. Because of you, six grebes are back where they belong: on the water, not the roadway.

After a few days of rest, good meals, and waterproofing, it was time for the best part: release day!

Just steps from our hospital, these grebes slipped back into the Shenandoah River, where the flowing water stays thawed even in winter. Within seconds, they were diving, paddling, and right at home again.

Watch this video to see their return to the wild.

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