Todd K. Pederson, age 9, of Duluth, Minnesota, for his question:
Can one bird really swim underwater?
Several different birds can swim underwater. Naturally they do not swim like fishes and they must come up for every breath of fresh air. They have no fins, but they use their wings to do a sort of breast stroke under water. The black and white penguin swims in the seas with goings that work like flippers. The champion fresh water underwater swimmer of the bird world is tae neat little water ouzel.
Most people call him the water ouzel, though some call him the dipper. He is related to our robins and one of his English cousins is a blackbird, famous for his beautiful songs. The water ouzel is not much of a singer but he is a great one for the water. He enjoys life among the stately redwoods of California, or high in the mountains. He also likes Alaska, even when the weather is 50 degrees below zero.
Other birds who enjoy the water usually prefer calm shores, swamps and lazy streams. But this water is too tame for the frisky ouzel. He loves the wild white water of tumbling mountain streams and rushing rapids. The rougher the caster, the better he likes it. One of his favorite sports is plunging head first into the wild water, time after time. When you watch him, you think he surely will break his little neck. Either that, or perhaps he means to commit suicide. Chances are, you hear a piercing call before you see an ouzel. No, he has not come to grief. There sits a dark brown bird near a slippery wet rock beside a tumbling stream. This is a young ouzel, with his pink mouth stretched open to the limit. demanding to be fed. Then the mother or the father arrives, pops a juicy bug into the open mouth and the screaming stops. The parent bird is smoother and a little smaller than the shaggy youngster.
Now watch the grown up bird in action. I:e takes a few jerky steps, bobbing his head, then suddenly he plunges into the stream and disappears under the wild waves. If you could watch him now, you would see him striding along the bottom, staring this way and that. His wings are half open and now and then he lifts his feet and flaps along with an underwater breast stroke. When he needs a breath of fresh air, he pops his little dark head above the water for a moment.
The water ouzel goes below to find his favorite food. He stares around for water beetles, also for the eggs and grubs of caddis flies and dragonflies that live in rushing streams. The parent bird dives for junior's dinner and gets back just in time to stop the next hungry scream.
Most water birds have webbed feet to make swimming and diving easier. But the water ouzel's toes are straight like a robins. However, he has thick, oily feathers to shed the water. He also has flaps of waterproof skin over his ears and his eyes have clear glassy lids to help him see all the interesting details under the water.