Feeding organisation in Great Crested Grebe chicks (1 Viewer)

Twice this spring I have seen Great Crested Grebe chicks being fed, and in each case when one of the parents (presumably Dad) surfaced with a fish, one chick detached itself from the group around the other parent and swam alone out to Dad and got the fish. There was no squabbling or clustering around like I expect to see with other birds. The chicks seemed to know "whose turn" it was. All very civilised. Almost against natural selection!

Does anyone know how this is organised by the birds? Is it a question of which chick is hungriest? Or is there some sort of signal that I didn't spot?

(The first time I saw it happen was with two well-grown young birds, and I saw two successive feedings - presumably a different chick each time but I hadn't watched them that closely. The second time was the feeding of just one chick out of four tiny ones - small enough for all four to get on their mother's back.)

Barbara

One possibility is that each chick was being fed to satiation in turn, starting with the hungriest/most vigorous & then working down the line. This would only apply, of course, if food were reasonably plentiful; if it weren't, more than one chick might be hungry at the same time & squabbling would ensue. Just my thoughts . . .