Swamp birds 1: Coot

There is a set of birds found around reedbeds, dams and lakes about the size of a domestic hen with distinctive colours on the frontal-shield above the beak. They are often called the gallinules, and they are so widespread they can appear a little pedestrian. The most common is undoubtedly the Swamphen a large blue-purple bird with a red beak and frontal-shield whose Latin name catches its purple front and black rear: Porphyrio melanotus. All gallinules forage on aquatic vegetation, or adjoining reeds and grass, looking for worms, molluscs and succulent vegetation. The other common gallinules are the Dusky Moorhen (Gallinula tenebrosa) and the Eurasian Coot (Fulica atra). Keen observers will note that the moorhen is more likely in small wetlands and swamps while the coot prefers larger stretches of water (every town’s sewerage pond is sure to have a flock).

The Eurasian Coot has a distinctive white frontal-shield. It takes to flight with a pattering run across the water. It is often seen bottom up as it searches for food under the water.

Their nest usually built on the water concealed among the reeds, may contain as may as fourteen eggs though usually 6-9. The chicks have reddish heads. For the first year the young birds are plain black without the white frontal-shield.

Eurasian coots, as the name suggests are found throughout Europe and Asia and recently arrived in New Zealand. The white frontal-shield may be the reason why the phrase arose ‘bald as a coot’. The Oxford dictionary says this phrase arose in the 1400s. but I haven’t heard it much lately though complete bald heads seem to be more fashionable than male-pattern baldness. We need to revive the phrase, bald as a coot!