American Coot

American Coot at Fredericton 

American Coot

On Friday, November 15,  2019, an American Coot (Fulica americana) was seen and photographed at Fredericton's Carleton Park.  It was gone by noon hour.  This was an unusual place and time for a coot, so, what was it doing here?  The St. John River is a migratory pathway for birds moving south from the northern part of the province and possibly from Quebec.  This coot, which usually prefers coastal ponds and inlets, is an unusual visitor to fresh water in New Brunswick.  This individual was clearly on its way south and put down at Carleton Park to spend the night with other waterfowl, to feed in the early morning and then wing southward for the rest of the day.

American Coot [Internet Photo]

The American Coot is a chicken-sized and shaped bird which prefers aquatic habitats and swims or wades most of the time.  It feeds on plants, aquatic invertebrates, amphibians, snails, worms and occasionally takes birds' eggs.  It forages by diving, tipping its head down from the surface or by walking along the shoreline.  It has a peculiar voice, making a variety of croaks, clucks, grunts and other loud strange noises.  It is definitely not a songster!

The American Coot is about 40 cm/ 15.5 in long with the males slightly larger than the females.  It is a member of the Rallidae family which it shares with rails and gallinules.  Generalizing, the coot looks like a black chicken with a white bill.  Males and females look alike.  It is an overall dark gray colour with a black head.  In flight they show a white trailing edge to their secondary wing feathers.  The undertail coverts are black with white patches on the outer edges.  The white bill sometimes shows a brownish-red partial ring.  This can also be on the white frontal shield above the bill.  The eye is red and the legs and feet are greenish coloured.  The toes have characteristic lobes between them much like webs (see photo below).  As shown above, the chicks are black with curly orange and yellow fluff on their heads.  

American Coot [Internet Photo]

In summer the American Coot breeds from British Columbia across southern Canada to the Great Lakes southward to the US and Mexico.  It winters through most of the central and southern US and Mexico.  It is a permanent resident over much of the southern US, Mexico and the Caribbean Islands.   In winter it is often seen in huge rafts swimming or resting in tight formation.  I have seen these rafts in North Carolina.  The coot is a rare summer visitor to New Brunswick.  There have been a few breeding records mostly along the St. John River and in the marshes along the NB-NS border.  The coot builds its nest out of leaves and stems over water attached to reeds.  Two to 12 eggs of variable colours are incubated for 21-25 days by both adults.  

The only other species one might mistake an American Coot for is the Common Gallinule but it has a bright red bill with a yellow tip and a white line along its side.  The Purple Gallinule is similar in size and shape but is so brightly coloured purple and green one would not mistake it.  

The American Coot is a unique bird.  Its voice is so strange it was used as one of the jungle calls in the Tarzan movies.  It is nicknamed 'marsh hen' or 'mud hen' because it walks (and swims) like a chicken with the characteristic head-bob.  A group of coots is sometimes called a 'commotion of coots'.  I doubt if we will ever see that in NB but we can often find one or two of this species in NB each summer.