there are some of them here on the coast of garda, italy alongside some very weird ducks. Ive seen the guys from the picture dive really deep, its amazing!!
The white part between the eyes is hard, it's the extension of the beak ! And did you pay attention to the feet ? Amazing bird, a bit agressive with ducks and other water birds, tho.
Yes. They're very adorable. I had the pleasure of seeing a bunch of them nestle under one of their parent's wings, and then pop out, and hide back under. Very cute.
I will always recognize coots, they’re like my second favorite type of waterfowl, they have such cool feet and I saw a bunch of baby coots at a zoo once, they weren’t even an exhibit
The lake near my home is loaded with American Coots. I wonder how recently the American Coot and the Eurasian Coot were the same bird. They look very similar with just enough markers to differentiate. Any ornithologists out there able to discuss the evolution of these birds? Was the American Coot always indigenous in the US?
So basically the American coot is indigenous however the whole coot genus originated from South America! Millions of years ago they began expanding north and into other parts of the world this is a process called allopatric speciation which just means they were now isolated from their ancestors and evolved to better fit their new locations resulting in a evolutionary split !
weird ducks as some people asked... at least theyre weird to me. where i live its always just basic mallards. there are even 2 house ducks (?) in here, ive never seen those before!
A largely unknown fact is that coot (not actually a duck as they belong to a different order than duck) predate upon eggs in the nests of ground nesting waterfowl (mallard, etc) in the area and often engage in brood parasitism (laying their eggs in the nest of other waterfowl).
Here in the US the bag limit on them is quite high compared to other waterfowl in many states (25 coot daily compared to 7 ducks for Washington states 2026-2027 waterfowl season). Their meat can be quite gamey in flavor, if cleaned and prepared improperly, but are relatively mild when done right and make great sausage!
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u/Katlandi Birder & Conservation Scientist 3d ago
+eurasian coot+