Coot

The genus Fulica was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.{{cite book | last=Linnaeus | first=Carl | author-link=Carl Linnaeus | year=1758 | title= Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis | volume=1 | edition=10th | page=152 | publisher=Laurentii Salvii | location=Holmiae (Stockholm) | language=Latin | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/727059 }} The genus name is the Latin word for a Eurasian coot.{{cite book | last=Jobling | first=James A. | year=2010| title=The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | publisher=Christopher Helm | location=London | isbn=978-1-4081-2501-4 | page=165 }} The name was used by the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner in 1555.{{cite book| last=Gesner | first=Conrad | author-link=Conrad Gessner | title=Historiae animalium liber III qui est de auium natura. Adiecti sunt ab initio indices alphabetici decem super nominibus auium in totidem linguis diuersis: & ante illos enumeratio auium eo ordiné quo in hoc volumine continentur | year=1555 | publisher= Froschauer | location=Zurich | language=Latin | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/52661257 | page=375}} The type species is the Eurasian coot.{{ cite book | editor-last=Peters | editor-first=James Lee | editor-link=James L. Peters | year=1934 | title=Check-List of Birds of the World | volume=2 | publisher=Harvard University Press | place=Cambridge, Massachusetts | page=211 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14483024 }}

A group of coots is referred to as a covert{{cite web|title=What do you call a group of ...?|url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/page/collectivenouns_us|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501131302/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/page/collectivenouns_us|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 1, 2011|work=Oxford Dictionaries|publisher=Oxford University Press|access-date=19 April 2011}} or cover.{{cite web|url=http://baltimorebirdclub.org/gnlist.html| title=Baltimore Bird Club. Group Name for Birds: A Partial List|access-date=2007-06-03}}

The genus contains 10 extant species and one which is now extinct.{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | editor3-last=Rasmussen | editor3-first=Pamela | editor3-link=Pamela Rasmussen | date=July 2021 | title=Flufftails, finfoots, rails, trumpeters, cranes, limpkin | work=IOC World Bird List Version 11.2 | url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/flufftails/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | accessdate=19 August 2021 }}

• {{dagger}}Fulica newtonii Milne-Edwards, 1867 – Mascarene coot (extinct, c. 1700)

• {{dagger}}Fulica chathamensis Forbes, 1892 – Chatham Island coot (early Holocene of the Chatham Islands)
• {{dagger}}Fulica montanei Alarcón-Muñoz, Labarca & Soto-Acuña, 2020 (late Pleistocene to early Holocene of Chile){{Cite journal|last1=Alarcón-Muñoz|first1=Jhonatan|last2=Labarca|first2=Rafael|last3=Soto-Acuña|first3=Sergio|date=2020-12-01|title=The late Pleistocene–early Holocene rails (Gruiformes: Rallidae) of Laguna de Tagua Tagua Formation, central Chile, with the description of a new extinct giant coot |url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0895981120303825 |journal=Journal of South American Earth Sciences |language=en |volume=104 |page=102839 |doi=10.1016/j.jsames.2020.102839|bibcode=2020JSAES.10402839A|s2cid=225031984 |url-access=subscription}}
• {{dagger}}Fulica prisca Hamilton, 1893 – New Zealand coot (early Holocene of New Zealand)
• {{dagger}}Fulica shufeldti – (late Pleistocene of Florida) possibly a paleosubspecies of Fulica americana; formerly F. minor

• {{dagger}}Fulica infelix Brodkorb, 1961 – (early Pliocene of Juntura, Malheur County, Oregon, USA)

Coots have prominent frontal shields or decoration on their foreheads, with red to dark red eyes and coloured bills. Many have white on the under tail. The featherless shield gave rise to the expression "as bald as a coot",{{Cite web |title=Coot {{!}} The Wildlife Trusts |url=https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/birds/wading-birds/coot |access-date=2024-06-01 |website=www.wildlifetrusts.org |language=en}} which the Oxford English Dictionary cites in use as early as 1430. Coots have long toes with broad lobes of skin that allow them to kick and propel themselves through the water. The lobes of skin fold back each time the coot lifts its foot, allowing them to walk on dry land while also providing support in mucky terrain.{{Cite web |title=American Coot Overview, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology |url=https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Coot/overview |access-date=2025-03-13 |website=www.allaboutbirds.org |language=en}} They tend to have short, rounded wings and are weak fliers, though northern species nevertheless can cover long distances. They typically congregate in large rafts in open water. Along these rafts coots may lay eggs in their own nest or in some other bird’s. Depending on the species of coot the eggs can vary in color: buff, pinkish buff or buff-gray speckled with dark brown, purplish brown, or black.{{Cite web |title=American Coot Life History, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology |url=https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Coot/lifehistory |access-date=2025-03-09 |website=www.allaboutbirds.org |language=en}}

The greatest species variety occurs in South America, and the genus likely originated there. They are common in Europe and North America.Olson, Storrs L. (1974). "The Pleistocene Rails of North America." Museum of Natural History. Coot species that migrate do so at night. The American coot has been observed rarely in Britain and Ireland, while the Eurasian coot is found across Asia, Australia and parts of Africa. In southern Louisiana, the coot is referred to by the French name "poule d'eau", which translates into English as "water hen".{{cite web|url=http://losbird.org/labirds/amco.htm|title=American Coot}}

Coots are omnivorous, eating mainly plant material, but also small animals, fish and eggs.{{Cite web |last=Ornithology |first=British Trust for |date=2015-04-07 |title=Coot |url=https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/coot |access-date=2024-06-01 |website=BTO - British Trust for Ornithology |language=en}} They are aggressively territorial during the breeding season, but are otherwise often found in sizeable flocks on the shallow vegetated lakes they prefer.

Chick mortality occurs mainly due to starvation rather than predation as coots have difficulty feeding a large family of hatchlings on the tiny shrimp and insects that they collect. Many chicks die in the first 10 days after hatching, when they are most dependent on adults for food.{{cite web|url=http://www.natureoutside.com/this-coot-has-a-secret/|title=This Coot has a Secret! - NatureOutside|date=20 June 2015}} Coots can be very brutal to their own young under pressure such as the lack of food, and after about three days they start attacking their own chicks when they beg for food. After a short while, these attacks concentrate on the weaker chicks, who eventually give up begging and die. The coot may eventually raise only two or three out of nine hatchlings.The Life of Birds, David Attenborough. The Problems of Parenthood. 10:20. In this attacking behaviour, the parents are said to "tousle" their young. This can result in the death of the chick.[https://books.google.com/books?id=uRS2WusqW8kC&dq=coots+attack+chicks&pg=PA203 Clutton-Brock, TH., The Evolution of Parental Care, Princeton University Press, 1991 p. 203.]

{{Reflist}}

{{wiktionary|coot}}{{Commons category multi|Fulica|Rallidae}}

• [http://ibc.lynxeds.com/family/rails-coots-rallidae Coot videos] on the Internet Bird Collection
• {{Cite NSRW|wstitle=Coot}}

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Category:Rallidae

Category:Bird genera

Category:Extant Pliocene first appearances

Category:Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus