This migratory waterbird is an infrequent visitor to lakes in central Kentucky during the winter months.
Commonly mistaken for a duck, the American coot (fulica americana) is in fact a bird of the family rallidae, which includes rails, gallinules, and coots. The common name is mud hen.
The American coot found its niche in sports culture as the mascot of the Toledo Mud Hens, a minor league baseball team in Toledo, Ohio, the Triple-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers.
Most common in the central and western U.S., American coot populations have declined in recent decades in the eastern U.S., from Virginia northward up the Atlantic Coast states.
The American coot breeds in the Prairie Pothole region in the north central U.S., parts of the Great Lakes states and parts of five Canadian provinces. Populations east of the Mississippi River winter in the Gulf Coast states and Mexico.
On their breeding grounds they are often aggressive and very territorial, and they usually migrate to wintering grounds in sizable flocks.
The American coot measures 13 to 17 inches, with a wingspan of 23 to 28 inches. Adults have a short tail, dark head and gray body, with wings and tail tipped in white, and a thick, white bill. Typically, there’s a reddish-brown spot near the top of the bill between their red eyes. Their legs are a greenish gray in color. Unlike the thin webbed feet of ducks, coots have strong legs, big feet, with lobed toes.
Males and females look alike, but females are smaller, weighing 0.941 to 1.385 pounds. Males average 1.270 to 1.870 pounds. Juvenile birds have olive-brown crowns and a gray body. Their plumage darkens after four months of age.
Diet
Omnivores, American coots eat mostly plant material, including the stems, leaves, and seeds of pond weeds, sedges, grasses, and algae, but they also consume insects, tadpoles, fish, worms, snails, crayfish, prawns, and the eggs of other birds.
They forage by dabbling on the surface of waters, upending in the shallows, and diving underwater, propelled by their feet.
They also graze on the land and steal food from ducks.
Hunting Season in Kentucky
In Kentucky, licensed hunters may take the American coot during duck season.
The daily bag limit is 15, but the number of birds available to hunters is very limited most years, dependent on weather, water conditions and when the birds migrate. They often winter as far north as there is open water.
In January each year Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources biologists conduct aerial inventories of waterfowl on bodies of water and wetlands on state wildlife management areas, and rivers and lakes across the state. The past two inventories found low numbers of American coots. When flocks were spotted, it was typically on major reservoirs.
Courtship and nesting
In courtship, the male may pursue the female across the water, putting on a display that includes swimming with its head and neck lowered, wings arched, and its tail raised.
They nest among tall marsh vegetation in shallow water, a floating platform of dead cattails, bulrushes, sedges, and lined with down and fine grasses. Both sexes build the nest, which is anchored to standing vegetation.
The female typically lays 6 to 12 buff to grayish-colored eggs with with brown spots.
Incubation is by both sexes and lasts 21 to 25 days. The young can swim well soon after hatching, follow their parents around and are fed by them.
At night, the young are brooded on a nest-like platform built by the male. The young are able to fly at about 7 to 8 weeks after hatching. Some pairs raise two broods a year.
