Schiess: Water Ouzel: A bird underwater

My granddaughter and I were walking together across the Firehole River Bridge in the Upper Geyser Basis when I heard a shrill “zzzzeet” call followed by a melodious song.

Looking over the edge we saw a tennis-ball sized grayish-black bird with its head under water as it walked gingerly upstream picking aquatic insects off a sunken log. An American Dipper was showing off its talents as it gathered aquatic insects under the water.

Each time the American Dipper, formally called the Water Ouzel, would gather an insect, it would crawl on a log or rock to drip-dry while it dispatched the hapless bug. Once the large larva or insect had been pounded into food, the bird’s short wings would beat shallow, but fast strokes as it would fly off to feed its chick near the bridge.

The bird always returned to a large flat rock or a fire-scorched log, half submerged in the fast flowing stream. Landing on the river’s edge, it worked its way down to the water and stuck its head under the water. After a few seconds it dove into a small pool and appeared to be flying under water. With wings spread, it worked its way across the bottom, occasionally stopping to roll a stone or pick at the riverbed. After what seemed several minutes, the ouzel popped to the surface and swam back to the log or rock with its catch held firmly in its bill.

After each trip under water, the drab-looking bird would sing, bending and straightening at the knees. This curious habit of “dipping” caused ornithologists a few years ago to name it the American Dipper. As a youngster I was introduced to the Water Ouzel by old outdoorsmen as the “teeter-ass” bird.

Dippers are known as an indicator species, requiring pure, fast-flowing, and open water to survive. Pollution or silting of streams will force it to abandon areas as their food source disappears.

A specialized body allows these birds to feed under water even during the bitter cold winter months high in the mountains. All they need are a few areas of open water with a bug-infested bottom. They are masters of rock rolling to find their food.

Their feathers are extremely thick, and like waterfowl, they have an oil sack at the base of their tail. In their preening, they coat their feathers with this oil, protecting their skin from water reaching it. Their eyes have a “nictitating membrane” which is an extra opaque eyelid allowing these birds to see underwater. Also as the bird dives, scales close the nostrils as they search for food at the bottom of the stream.

Dippers’ low metabolic rate as well as its blood’s extra oxygen carrying ability, allows them to survive during the cold winters.

Normally these solitary birds are rarely seen in pairs outside the breeding season. As they prepare for nesting each spring, a pair will form a globe-shaped nest on a cliff, ledge or under a bridge. After the two to four eggs hatch, the male will help feed the young, but then abandons the family when the chicks leave the nest. He will live the solitary bachelor life until the next spring.

As we observed the water ouzel, I remembered it was naturalist John Muir’s favorite bird and like him, my granddaughter and I were entertained by its strange but interesting lifestyle. The habits and name are so odd that bars, restaurants, and clothing stores have been named after it while it is only, as one observer called it, “just a little black bird.”