People may have noticed large rafts of smallish black birds on our lakes, they’re most likely the boisterous waterbird known as the Eurasian Coot.
Non-breeding birds will form flocks numbering into the hundreds and sometimes thousands, especially this year.
A distinctive stocky waterbird that is easily recognised by its black head with snowy white bill and forehead shield. Adults are a sooty dark grey, with a bright red eye. Younger birds are generally paler. Their rounded, plump body tapers to a pointed wisp of tail. When on the shore, you may have noticed their rather big greenish ‘clown’ feet with lobed toes.
The Coot ranges from Eurasia to Indonesia, New Guinea and Australia, where they are found throughout the country, except for inland areas of Western Australia, and less common in the north and drier regions. They inhabit both freshwater and brackish marshes, lake shores, lagoons, and riverways and are occasionally seen on saltwater.
Foraging in shallow to deep water, they mostly dive for their food and can dive down to a depth of seven metres. They feed on vegetable matter which is supplemented by the occasional insect, worm or fish.
At times, they will graze on land, but can look rather clumsy and unbalanced as their legs are set back to give them better thrust in the water.
While they may look sweet, they are loud and aggressive and very territorial. They will fight each other and other species. Even their own chicks are not safe. When food is scarce, they take their stress out on their chicks who are demanding food from them, biting them to quieten down, and sometimes even killing them.
Breeding occurs at any time that conditions are favourable, usually influenced by rain, and may produce successive broods.
Pairs are established and their territories are maintained with vigour, extending this aggression to other species too. They often take over the nests of ducks, pushing the duck eggs out and sometimes killing young ducks and grebes.
Their own nests are often a large neat bowl on a floating raft of vegetation or can be built on logs or tree stumps surrounded by water. A clutch of 4-12 eggs can be laid and both sexes share incubation and care of the young.
And finally, their young, they would have to be one of the ugliest baby birds around.
IMAGE: Eurasian Coot Adult. (Photo: Ross McKenzie)
