Who gives a Hoot about a Coot?
Photos by DON BARTLING A slow and meticulous forager, the American Coot plucks at plants while swimming dabbling with its head just underwater, or in full dives
With their plump bodies and narrow wings, it is hard for coots to get airborne. On water they dash along on the surface until they get enough speed for liftoff.
BONNERS FERRY — A crisp morning breeze turned the waters of the Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge into a corrugated surface of sparkling silver. I had arrived early and found many geese, and ducks loafing in the morning sun. I was in search of Tundra swans who look regal with their brilliant white bodies and elegant long necks, but instead I saw a group of birds that looked like the opposite of a swan, which I didn’t give a hoot about. But I started to study the bobbing dark big balls about two-thirds the size of a mallard, with strange Ivory bills and foreheads. There were eight of them acting like they owned the pond, squabbling and chasing each other noisily.
The odd birds weren’t ducks; they were American coots, (also known as mud hens) although they were keeping close company with the mallards and other ducks and geese. Coots look like a cross between a chicken and a duck. The bill is conical, not flattened. The plump round body is nothing like the sleek lines of most ducks. With their fat bodies, skinny legs and outside feet, coots look a bit like somber clowns when on land. When swimming and diving, though, they are surprisingly graceful.
The male and female coots look alike, although males are slightly larger. The head and neck are black while the wings and body are dark gray. As I looked through my Nikon camera with telephoto lens I could see their red eyes. The white bill extended up the forehead where it ends with a reddish brown dot. The tip of the bill has an incomplete ring of the same russet color.
A slow and meticulous forager, the American Coot plucks at plants while walking, swimming, dabbling with its head just underwater, or in full dives. In flight coots are clumsy and labored. To get airborne coots typically have to beat their wings while running across the water for many yards.
Admiration for oddball American Coot is an acquired taste even though they are not swans or ducks; they are nonetheless interesting. They are rails that look like ducks because, over evolutionary time, they have come out of the marshes where rails are common and have become adapted morphologically and behaviorally for living a duck’s life. They swim like a duck and dive like a duck, but admittedly they don’t quack like a duck! The chicken-like bill is quite different from that of a duck. Ducks have sieve-like lamellae on the edges of their bill to allow a sort of filter-feeding, while coots just grab their prey items and swallow them.
Coots are feisty birds, very territorial in breeding season and inclined to chase just about any other birds of their own or other species away from their nesting areas. They display their white bill and white under-tail coverts, and then they may fight fiercely, locking feet and pecking each other. They do manage to get along with their mates, and they make big, sloppy floating nests out of marsh vegetation. They lay around 9 to 12 eggs per clutch and have only one clutch per year. The young are able to get around on their own but still have to be fed by the adults. The incubation of a coot is 21 to 25 days and the fledging period is 49-52 days. The male and female both feed their young.
Nests are generally built over water on floating platforms and almost always associated with dense stands of living or dead vegetation such as reeds, cattails, and grasses. Occasionally, the nest may be built on the edge of a stand of vegetation, where it is clearly visible.
Although it swims like a duck, the American Coot does not have webbed feet like a duck. Instead, each one of the coot’s toes has broad lobes of skin that help it kick through the water. The broad lobes fold back each time the bird lifts its foot, so it doesn’t impede walking on dry land, though it supports the bird’s weight on mucky ground.
The average lifespan of an American Coot is 9 years. The oldest known coot lived to be 22 years 4 months.
Finally, warmer weather has arrived. There is so much to see and do after such a long and wet winter. It’s time to get out and enjoy the beauty of Boundary County.