Coot

A group of coots are referred to as a covert[2] or cover.[3]

Extant species

Image	Scientific name	Common Name	Distribution
	Fulica alai Peale, 1848	Hawaiian coot or ʻAlae keʻokeʻo	Hawaii
	Fulica americana Gmelin, 1789	American coot	southern Quebec to the Pacific coast of North America and as far south as northern South America
	Fulica ardesiaca Tschudi, 1843	Andean coot	Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru
	Fulica armillata Vieillot, 1817	red-gartered coot	Argentina, southern Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay
	Fulica atra Linnaeus, 1758	Eurasian coot or common coot	Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa
	Fulica cornuta Bonaparte, 1853	horned coot	Argentina, Bolivia, Chile
	Fulica cristata Gmelin, 1789	Red-knobbed coot	Africa, Iberian Peninsula
	Fulica gigantea Eydoux & Souleyet, 1841	giant coot	Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Peru
	Fulica leucoptera Vieillot, 1817	white-winged coot	Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Falkland Islands, Paraguay, Uruguay
	Fulica rufifrons Philppi & Landbeck, 1861	red-fronted coot	Argentina, southern Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, southern Peru, Uruguay

Coots have prominent frontal shields or other decoration on the forehead, 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," which the Oxford English Dictionary cites in use as early as 1430. Like other rails, they have long, lobed toes that are well adapted to soft, uneven surfaces. Coots have strong legs and can walk and run vigorously. 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. They are socially gregarious and messy aquatic feeders.

The greatest species variety occurs in South America, and the genus likely originated there. They are common in Europe and North America.[5] 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" or "moorhen".[6]

Coots are omnivorous, eating mainly plant material, but also small animals, fish and eggs. 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. Most chicks die in the first 10 days after hatching, when they are most dependent on adults for food.[7] 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.[8] In this attacking behaviour, the parents are said to "tousle" their young. This can result in the death of the chick.[9]

Look up coot in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikispecies has information related to Fulica.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fulica and Rallidae.

• Coot videos on the Internet Bird Collection
• Beach, Chandler B., ed. (1914). "Coot" . The New Student's Reference Work . Chicago: F. E. Compton and Co.