I am linking up with Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes
For this week's featured bird I am sharing the American Coot.
The Coot has a white bill with a rusty band. The head is darker in color than the body.
The American Coot is listed as a Rail species even thought it hardly seem to behave like a rail. It swims regularly in the open water an dives for aquatic vegetation. They are common and widespread.
Some more info on the American Coot, groups of Coots are called rafts.Mating season starts in May-June. A coot mate pairings are monogamous throughout their life.
Thanks for stopping by my post and for all the nice comments.
Join in and post your birdies and to see more beautiful and wonderful bird photos please visit:
Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday and Michelle's Nature Notes. Thanks to our host Michelle our host Stewart. Happy Birding and have a wonderful week!
For this week's featured bird I am sharing the American Coot.
The American Coot is listed as a Rail species even thought it hardly seem to behave like a rail. It swims regularly in the open water an dives for aquatic vegetation. They are common and widespread.
Some more info on the American Coot, groups of Coots are called rafts.Mating season starts in May-June. A coot mate pairings are monogamous throughout their life.
Thanks for stopping by my post and for all the nice comments.
Join in and post your birdies and to see more beautiful and wonderful bird photos please visit:
Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday and Michelle's Nature Notes. Thanks to our host Michelle our host Stewart. Happy Birding and have a wonderful week!
57 comments:
I'd love to know how they classified this as a "rail".
Looks like a duck to me!
Hope you're getting a bit of the warmth and sunshine today that we had yesterday--it was marvelous. Of course, the snow in the yard didn't give me any chance to actually DO anything...LOL!
Have a great day, Eileen!
:)
Hi Eileen great to see so many American Coots. When we went to Scotland for the bird trip and saw 1, we were very excited.
Hi Eileen, I love seeing your bird sightings as they're often so similar to ours. We have the Red-knobbed (Crested) Coot which also has a white bill. Thanks for sharing. Have a great day. Jo
Good morning and what a great start to my day. I love this. Just 2 weeks ago I saw 2 Amer. Coots and Sunday before church 1 remained. It is really a cool looking bird! Happy birding~
One of your birds that I enjoyed seeing in the west, and a nice post.
Good Morning, Eileen. These are gorgeous photos.
Good morning Eileen!!
Such beautiful birds!Are they ducks?Wonderful shots and great captures!Thank you for sharing!Wish you a happy week!Hugs!
Dimi...
It's nice to see a feature on a relatively common species, probably under-appreciated. It's doubtful that Margaret saw an American Coot in Scotland; almost certainly it would have been a Eurasian Coot.
nice to see them in your waters too Eileen
There's something about birds that mate for life....:)JP
glad to hear you they are mates for life - that is super great & sweet. aww!! ( :
Great shots! I had no idea that a group of them were called rafts. So awesome :)
We used to go paddling in a little bay in Hamilton ON called "Cootes Paradise". I was never sure if it was because of birds or someone's name. Your photos are great, and the coots are rather sweet all together :) Wendy x
I like their black bonnets.
such neat birds! i've only seen them once on a nearby lake here. :)
Wow! Good gathering there.
You got them all.
Those Funny Coots are everywhere! And they're noisy!! Nice shot of them!! Where there is one -- there is a thousand :-}}
Lovely shots of the coots Eileen. I learned something new, that groups are called a raft.
Nice photos and good info about the coot. Thanks for sharing!
Beautiful photos of the coots, Eileen.
The first picture I find really great.
Greetings Irma
I've never heard of the American Coot before. Thank you for educating me! Great photos :)
I never really appreciated the coot until I started photographing them. Their red eye and jet black head is really something! Pretty pics, Eileen. :)
Coot is such a funny name. Like learning about them though.
Beautiful shots of the birds!
We used to see rafts of them on the Lake (reservoir) where we stay in Oregon. (Except last summer, the lake didn't fill. I hope they found another spot.)
Hi Eileen. Nice set of photos - we have the Coots here as well.
Beautiful ducks!!
Great photos and a lovely group of birds. Greetings :)
Looks like they are enjoying themselves swimming around. : )
Pretty birds very striking colours.
Merle.......
I still have not seen any coot soming up. But I guess they are not far now.
Nice shots! We have them here during the winter. Their feet are goofy!
Coots are always interesting to watch. It looks like they have a red ruby at the top of their beak.
Brilliant American Coots images.
All my life I've heard "you old coot" - I've never pictured a handsome bird when I hear it. :)
I like the subtle reflection in the first shot.
Have a great rest of your week!
With us they are called coots and they are all black with a white beak. The children of these coots than have red collars and punky look out lol ......
Very fine day.
So beautiful birds and photos! I thought they are ducks. :)
Have a nice day!
They're pretty! There are so many birds that I know nothing about. I enjoy learning.
I love taking photos of Coots, They are a challenge, because of their dark colors. I enjoyed seeing your photos of the cute birds, well done and beautiful!
I see them everywhere. I had no idea they were a type of rail.
I have only seen the Coot at our local aviary but I knew very little about the species. Thanks for the info Eileen.
Cute Coot! Sorry, could not resist that. They are kin of cute though with their black heads and dark tip of their white beaks.
Well done Eileen,
They look exactly the same as ours! LOL!
I love to watch their fights and parades!
Keep well!
Gorgeous photos Eileen.
I still haven't worked out what the difference is between the American Coot and ours, great shots.
All the Eileen, Gordon.
just like ours in Australia!
Looks quite like the European coot, with some subtle differences, though i guess it's also bigger than our coot
I think the feet might give a clue as to why they're rails rather than ducks.
Beautiful photos of the coots, Eileen!
Hi Eileen, When I lived up at the lake in TN, in the Winter (when we did not have snow) we occasionally had American Coots browsing on our grassy front lawn. Funny to see twenty coots eating grass and worms as if they were songbirds. They also paddled and dove in the lake for lake weeds. Funny but graceful birds! Have a really great day tomorrow!
i love ducks....i think these are ducks.
they have a pretty red eye, i don't see these on my ponds!!
I love your photos!
(ツ) from Cottage Country Ontario , ON, Canada!
In what must be a rare event, I have seen some of these birds this month! I think this could be a first!
Nice pictures.
Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne
I love when Coots run on ice....that is the funniest thing I think I have ever seen....poor little birds.
I am glad they have some open non-frozen water as so many died here ... Michelle
Lovely shots, Eileen. I love to watch the Coots.
wow, eileen, another fantastic series of photos. love american coots!
happy weekend~xo
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