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Coot

Coot

Fulica atra

Like moorhens, coots are part of the rail family. They can be seen year-round in the UK, with numbers increasing in the winter as migratory coots from Eastern and Northern Europe arrive on our shores.

Coots live on ponds, lakes and slow-moving rivers – even in flooded quarry pits. Their long legs and toes enable them to dive for their favourite foods: submerged plants, but they also eat insects, fruit, seeds, leaves and bird eggs. They’re easy to mistake for a moorhen; although they’re a little larger, and with a white bill and forehead, rather than the red and yellow bill of the moorhen.

If you’re after an easy mnemonic to tell coots and moorhens apart – remember that there’s no R in coot, but there is an R in mooRhen, and it’s the moorhen which has the Red beak and shield. And you’ll find a T at the end of cooT, and a T towards the end of its whiTe beak and shield.

The coot's lobed feet help it swim in the water

Coots have large lobed feet

Coots have impressive grey-blue lobed feet which they use like webbed feet for swimming. They have almost completely black plumage.

They are said to make a call that sounds like its name: a honking ‘coot’ sound, but they can also make a squeaking high pitched metallic noise.

Despite their relatively small size, they will aggressively defend their territories, leaning back on the water and lashing out at their adversary with their large lobed feet, sometimes so violently that the loser of the fight can drown.

Their nests are typically quite exposed at the edge of a reed bed, and are made from dead reeds. They typically have 5-7 chicks in a brood, but often they won’t all survive. Coots have been known to attack and kill their own young: if food supplies run short, they might have to choose which chicks to feed; and they’ve been seen to to bite and kill chicks that beg too often for food.

Conservation status

Coots are green listed in the UK  but while they might not be listed in the Solent’s Special Protection Areas but they are still important for the coastal ecosystem and form part of the waterbird assemblages for which this region is protected.

Did you know

The phrase “bald as a coot” is derived from the white frontal patch on their foreheads.