American Coot - Ross Feldner

Just take a look at those tootsies! This widespread bird is also known as a mud hen. Although often mistaken for a duck, it is a distant relation and belongs to a separate order. Unlike the webbed feet of ducks, coots have broad, lobed scales on their legs and toes that help them walk on dry land.

American Coots are found near reed-ringed lakes and ponds, open marshes, and sluggish rivers. Their breeding habitat extends from marshes in southern Quebec to the Pacific coast of North America and as far south as northern South America. Those in temperate North America east of the Rocky Mountains migrate to the southern United States. It is a year-round resident where water remains open in winter.

The American Coot can dive for food but will also forage and scavenge on land. Their preferred source of food is aquatic vegetation, especially algae but they will also eat arthropods, fish, and other aquatic animals.

They are prolific builders and will create multiple structures during a single breeding season usually nesting in well-concealed locations in tall reeds.

The American Coot is a very gregarious species with flocks often numbering in the thousands. When swimming on the water's surface, they exhibit a variety of collective formations, including single-file lines, high-density synchronized swimming and rotational dynamics, broad arcing formations, and sequential take offs.