Tuleyome Tales: Coots, the original ‘Angry Birds’
- Mary K. Hanson
- Posted On
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – If you’ve been anywhere that has some kind of water habitat associated with it, you’ve no doubt seen the black American Coot (Fulica Americana) – and usually in large numbers.
A relative of rails, the coot is one of the most widespread and easily recognizable water birds in the state.
The females are slightly smaller than the males, and the males have more feathers on their head (their “ruff”) which they display in battle with other males.
Otherwise the sexes look alike: black or very dark grey bodies, yellow legs, and a stark white bill and forehead (the frontal shield) which has a dark red spot on the top of it between the eyes.
Their most remarkable feature, though, is their feet. Rather than having webbing between their toes like a duck, coots have blue-green toes with long movable lobes on them. The lobes help to push the coots through the water, but flatten down when the bird is on land, so they don’t interfere with its walking.
Both attributes are handy for the coot who spends time both in and out of the water on a regular basis.
Coots both dabble and dive for food in the water, and although they eat a variety of aquatic plants they will also graze on land for grains and terrestrial foliage like oak leaves and grasses.
Coots aren’t vegetarians, however; they also eat insects, snails and crayfish, small fish, tadpoles and salamanders. I once saw a coot trying to gobble up the pink entrails of another bird that had been downed by a hawk and fallen into the water.
Coot behavior is also varied. Often characterized as “grumpy and pugnacious,” real life Angry Birds, coots will aggressively defend their courtship and nesting platforms from interlopers, often rearing up in the water and smacking an opponent with their large lobed feet.
An aggravated coot will also sometimes try to force a rival onto its back, push it down under the surface of the water in an attempt to drown it.
Additionally, the females are known to be conspecific (“same species”) brood parasites: they will lay their eggs in the nests of other coots whenever the opportunity arises.
Coots can also be rather brutal to their offspring, initially choosing favorites based on “chick ornaments,” those bright yellow-orange feathers that pop out at all angles like a fright-wig on the head and neck of their chicks.
The chick with the most bling, gets the most food … Usually. Sometimes, however, if a runty chick with fewer ornaments demonstrates to its parents that it’s tough enough to survive even if it’s half-starved and its bigger siblings pick on it, the parents will do an about-face and make the runt their favorite, lavishing it with food and attention at the expense of the others in the brood.
On the plus side, coots are monogamous; they mate for life. And they are gregarious birds over the winter months when they’re not breeding, tolerating the closely proximity of neighbors, often forming into flocks that can number into the hundreds.
They will also cooperate with one another when danger is present. It’s not unusual to see coots group together into “covers” (on land) or “rafts” (in the water) in order to confuse and evade predators.
I’ve witnessed flocks of coots form large rafts in the water and then swim as a synchronized unit, like a school of fish, this way and that along the surface, in response to the presence of bald eagles – one of the coots’ most fearsome predators. (Studies have indicated, in fact, that about 80 percent of a bald eagle’s diet is coot meat.)
Coots can fly, but usually only for short distances and somewhat low to the ground with their feet dangling – rather like chickens.
Taking off from the water is particularly cumbersome for them. They have to flap their wings vigorously while they run across the top of the water for several feet before they can manage to get any kind of lift. It’s during this kind of clumsy take-off that they are often open to attack.
One predator coots don’t have to worry too much about, though, is humans. Since coot meat is considered inedible – some say it tastes “swampy” – it’s not sought after by hunters.
And that can help the coots live longer than many of their waterfowl brethren, up to about 24 years in the wild.
Mary K. Hanson is a Certified California Naturalist, author and nature photographer. She will be co-teaching a naturalist course for the public through Tuleyome in early 2018. Tuleyome is a501(c)(3) nonprofit conservation organization based in Woodland, Calif. For more information, visit www.tuleyome.org.