The American coot is in the family Rallidae which also includes gallinules and the highly secretive rails. They are more closely related to sandhill cranes than they are to ducks.

Coots tend to be less nervous than most waterfowl and will likely tolerate your intrusion. From a close vantage point, you can observe many interesting features on these 13- to 16-inch long birds.

The peculiar American coot is a somewhat common permanent resident in Oklahoma, and is this week’s featured creature. The bird is in the rallidae family. However, whereas most birds in that ...

The American coot is among the many waterfowl that can be found at Wildlife Recovery Association's Little Swamp Sanctuary in Midland County. Midland Daily News Logo Hearst Newspapers Logo.

At first glance, American coots, or mud hens, look like small ducks. They swim higher in the water than most ducks, though, and the white beak is sharper and more cone-shaped than the bill of a duck.

The American coot is the Rodney Dangerfield of birds. It gets no respect. A look at North Carolina’s daily bag limits for hunting ducks and coots gives you an indication of that lack of regard ...

Editor’s note: This is a monthly article featuring bird species of the Upper Clark Fork River Valley from Butte to Garrison. Author Gary Swant hopes the column will inspire people ...

American coots The name coot may derive from a 14th-century English word, cote, for diving waterbirds. American coots resemble chickens, giving them the nickname mud hen and pouldeau.

A small duck-like bird, the American Coot’s black body, red eyes, and white beak makes it one of the more easily identified waterfowl. A flock of coots is sometimes called a “commotion” or a “swarm.” ...

The early-week icing certainly impacted the weekly aerial waterfowl survey by the Illinois Natural History Survey, plus Joshua Osborn’s blog includes a mallard anomaly and a bad day for American ...