Critters of North Idaho: American Coot
If you see this bird swimming across the water’s surface from a distance, chances are you will mistake it for a duck.
But if you happen to see this bird up close, well, you might think you’re looking at some strange cross between a duck and a plump chicken!
In reality though, the American coot is perhaps one of America’s least-known and most strikingly unusual waterfowls.
Despite any similarities it shares to ducks and chickens, the American coot (Fulica americana) is actually related to neither. It belongs to the rail family, which is a diverse group of birds consisting of around 151 species. Other members of this family, aside from coots, include crakes, gallinules, and of course rails themselves.
The American coot is about two-thirds the size of a mallard duck, measuring between 15.5 and 16.9 inches in length, possessing a wingspan of around 2 feet and weighing anywhere from 1 to 1.4 pounds. This plump bird’s body is primarily gray, with blacker coloration on the head and a white bill. Its large, pale-yellow feet are lobed, perfect for propelling itself across the water. Even though their wings are relatively short compared to the size of the bird, the American coot is still capable of flight. They inhabit wetlands, ponds, marshes, lakes and other bodies of water across the North American continent.
Come May or June, it is time for the coots to raise their young. This usually takes place hidden among tall marsh reeds. The parents-to-be construct the nest from vegetation and design it to float atop the water’s surface. It is attached to the plant life growing around it to ensure that it doesn’t float away. The nests are so durable that they can be reused by other parent coots when the first one is finished. Most coots lay between six and 11 eggs, which the male and female take turns to incubate over the course of around three weeks.
Some pregnant female coots shirk the duties of motherhood altogether, instead choosing to lay their eggs in the nests of their neighbors when the incubating parents aren’t looking and make a getaway. This behavior is called nest parasitism, and it is practiced most famously by cuckoo birds. There usually isn’t enough food to feed all of the chicks, meaning that the survival of a parasitic chick equals starvation for another chick in the brood.
For some reason, the cuckoo bird’s victims seem incapable of realizing they have been duped, even when the cuckoo chick grows bigger than its surrogate mother! This is not the case with coots however. Many parent coots have learned to differentiate their own offspring from the parasitic ones because their eggs were laid before those of the other mother, and are also the first to hatch. Parents then violently reject imposter chicks.
Within six hours, the chicks are ready to leave the nest and follow their parents around. This is how they will learn how to forage for all sorts of tasty food. Usually this consists of duckweeds, pondweeds, algae, aquatic insects, mollusks and other invertebrates.
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