Into this maelstrom flies an American dipper, a stub-tailed bird about the size of a starling. The dipper alights momentarily on a mid-stream boulder, then dives into the torrent. After 15 seconds on the surging stream bottom, the bird bobs like a cork to the surface, precisely where it entered the water, and returns to the boulder. A juicy insect larva dangles from its bill. Just another dinner in dipper land.
American dippers occupy an unusual niche in the songbird world.
Inextricably tied to racing streams, they routinely feed where few other terrestrial animals dare to go. They rear young just feet from churning whirlpools. They are splendidly adapted for their aquatic life-style, yet even in the wilderness have trouble finding appropriate nest sites. Ornithologists have long believed dippers to be too fragile to withstand human intrusion into their habitat, but new research by Montana biologist Sophie Osborn suggests otherwise. Young birds may practice dipping while still in the nest, and adults do it repeatedly when resting between feeding dives, while courting, during territorial disputes and when alarmed.