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A coot is a small, medium-sized waterfowl that belongs to the shepherd's family. Most of the inhabitants know this species called bald spots. Its original name of a coot received due to the characteristic leathery spot located in the frontal part of the head, on which the feather cover is completely absent.
The main color of representatives of this type of shepherd's is black or dark gray. The bird has a rather long and sharp white beak, which smoothly passes into the leathery spot mentioned above in the frontal part. Another feature of a coot is that it has a dark red eye color.
The feather cover of the flats is rather soft, the length of the tail is relatively small. The structure of the paws of this bird deserves special attention. Despite the fact that the coot belongs to waterfowl birds, nevertheless, on its paws there are no connecting membranes connecting the fingers to each other.Instead, on the latter there are scalloped blades, the disclosure of which occurs only when the bird sits on the water surface. The main color of the coot paws is yellow or dark orange, the fingers themselves are dark and the blades on them are light. This colorful combination of colors, as well as the unique structure of the paws of flats attracts considerable attention to representatives of this species.
As a rule, coots do not have particular differences in appearance between individuals, for this reason, in order to accurately determine the sex of birds, you should carefully listen to its voice and sounds made. For example, females have quite a sonorous voice, sounds are loud and jerky. The male has a lower and deaf voice, with some hissing prevailing in the reproduced sounds.
Natural habitat
Coots belong to migratory species of waterfowl birds, therefore they regularly migrate to winter quarters to warm lands. The flight time of flocks of coots is from the beginning to the end of autumn, they return to the nesting place of the bird from March to May.
Another feature of this species of waterfowl birds is that the pattern of migration routes of coot is still not fully understood, this is because representatives of one population often make flights that are characterized by a rather long duration in completely different directions.
Quite a few bird colonies are sedentary in Western Europe, South Asia and North Africa, only occasionally flying over relatively short distances.
Peculiarities of lifestyle
The bird is most active during the daytime. In the evening and at night the activity of coots is manifested only with the beginning of the warm season and during the flight. Most of their lives, this species of waterfowl is carried out on the water. It should be noted that this species of birds of the shepherd family keeps on the surface of the water several orders of magnitude better than all their relatives. However, these birds do not move as fast and dexterously as they pass by water.
Having felt the danger, the bald one will rather rush into the water and dive, or for some time will lurk in the thicket of thick grass than decide to take to the air. Representatives of this type of shepherd dives deep enough - up to 4 meters (in the vertical position). Nevertheless, they practically cannot move under water, which is why they do not hunt underwater inhabitants.
In flight, the coot is quite heavy, but this does not prevent her from flying at all. In order to take to the air, the bird should first accelerate on the water surface, running about 10 meters against the wind direction.
Coots are very gullible and peace-loving birds, despite the fact that this species is being hunted, these waterfowl birds very readily admit people to themselves.
In the period of spring migration to the nesting place, coots prefer to make their flights in the evening and at night. As a rule, such flights are performed by small groups of birds. To the place of wintering they are the opposite - they gather in rather large flocks, the number of which is very high (up to several hundred thousand).
Power Features
The basic ration of food of such waterfowl as coots consists mainly of plant food (fruits and seeds of plants growing on water, young shoots). Most often, the food is easily accessible vegetation, common in the nesting places of representatives of this species (algae, duckweed).
In addition to vegetable, the bald cat consumes animal food, however, its amount in the diet of the bird is about 10% of the total mass (small fish, invertebrates, mollusks and eggs of other species of birds). It is noticed that coots often get their own food, simply taking it away from swans and other types of ducks, even though the latter are often much larger.
Breeding features
Coot ducks are monogamous birds. Reaching the age of puberty, as a rule, individuals immediately form a pair. I would like to note that the breeding period of this species of waterfowl birds does not differ by constancy and directly depends on many different factors - from weather conditions to the availability of the necessary food in the nesting area. Basically, the beginning of the mating season coincides with the time of arrival of birds after wintering.
During the mating season, the birds behave not only very actively, but also noisily, often displaying some aggression towards their potential rivals, who are also interested in a particular female. After the pair is chosen, the males look after their half, which is manifested by mutual cleaning of the plumage and feeding of the food they get. At the next stage, a pair of birds is building their nest, while their behavior changes dramatically - they behave in the most secretive manner so as not to attract undue attention from predatory birds and animals that can destroy the nesting place.
Directly the nest itself is built by a coot on the surface of the water, in dense thickets of vegetation, which allows it to be carefully masked.
During the construction of the nest, the latter is fixed by birds on the water through the root system of underwater plants. This is done so that the flow does not take away the bird house. Typically, the diameter of such a building reaches 35-45 cm, depth - not less than 20-25 cm. The distance between the coot nests is not less than 30-50 meters.
When other species of birds appear near the nesting place, coots often attack the uninvited guest.In some cases, to repel the attacks of their enemies, birds are combined into small groups, which helps protect the nests from ruin.
During the same season, the female may lay several egg clutches, with the number of eggs in one laying reaching 10-12. Eggs of the correct form, light sand color with brown specks.
Already after the first day after spitting, the coots of the coots can leave the nest together with the parent pair. During the first two weeks, the adults help the chicks, teaching them vital skills and obtaining food for them.
Three-month-old chicks are already quite strong birds that can feed and fly on their own. As a rule, upon reaching this age, young members of the species gather in small flocks and prepare to fly to the place of the first winter hut.
This type of migratory waterfowl like a coot is a game that is desired by any hunter. Often for the bait of this bird during the hunt, special stuffed animals are used, which attract waterfowl and peace-loving birds.
Video: Coot (Fulica atra)
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