Odd coot in Washington gets mention by David Sibley

Typical American Coot, Commonwealth Park, Beaverton, Oregon, 22 January 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

On March 13, Lyn Topinga reported to OBOL (Oregon Birders OnLine email list) that she had photographed an odd American Coot in Vancouver, Washington. It lacked the dark red spot on the top of the bill's frontal shield and, therefore, resembles the Caribbean Coot.

Click for Lyn's photos

David Sibley picked up news of this bird and wrote an article on this rare variant (~1% of all American Coots may appear as this bird): The 'Caribbean' Coot in North America. Lyn's photos and those of Scott Carpenter are listed in Sibley's references.

Sibley argues that without definitive DNA evidence to the contrary, the Caribbean Coot could very well simply be this variant, though more common in the West Indies.

You know, even birds that we usually ignore because of their ubiquitousness can surprise us.

Friday Foto: American Coot

American Coot, Commonwealth Park, Beaverton, Oregon, 22 January 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

Most coots look dark slate gray. This one has highlights of blue and purple.

This photo shows the lobed toes discussed in a previous post about American Coots.

At the pond... American Coot

American Coot, Tualatin River NWR, Sherwood, Oregon on 4 August 2007 by Greg Gillson.

 

At first blush the American Coot appears to be a duck. However, it has a strange white, almost chicken-like bill. One look at the green legs and lobed toes, though, and one quickly realizes it is not a duck!

Rather than a duck-like foot with webbing between the front three toes, each of the coot's long toes have individual web-like flaps to aid in swimming! In this way the feet are lobed similar to those of grebes. However, coots are not closely related to ducks or grebes. Instead, they are more closely related to rails--those secretive marsh dwellers. Coots are very closely related to birds called moorhens or gallinules. Moorhens, though, lack lobes on their very long toes.

There are 11 species of coots in the world, all very similar in appearance. The American Coot has a dark gray body with darker head and neck. The white bill has a dark reddish ring near the tip, and a dark red spot on the forehead frontal shield. The undertail coverts are blackish with white outer patches.

These birds breed widely in marshy wetlands from Alaska to southeastern Canada and southward through Mexico and the West Indies, locally in Central American and Columbia. They build mound nests in the water of cattails and rushes. In winter they use a wider variety of lakes and ponds, withdrawing from the northern portion of their range as these water sources freeze over. During the winter the American Coot becomes even more abundant in the Pacific Northwest, wherever open water remains, especially in coastal estuaries and valleys west of the Cascades and Sierra-Nevada mountains.

To view the feet of coots, visit grassy city parks with a pond in winter. Here American Coots and American Wigeon often graze together on the lawns and become accustomed to close approach by people.