COOT
A medium sized water bird, 360 to 380mm long. Their bodies and face are a sooty grey to slate black colour, with a white beak and frontal plate, which gave rise to the phrase “bald as a coot”. If you can get close to them, you will see they have wonderful red eyes. Their feet are grey, with large lobed toes. In flight, they have a pale rear edge on their wings and trailing feet. When swimming, their heads gently bob. Coots dive with a small leap but resurface quickly, like a cork. They eat mostly aquatic plant material but will also eat snails, tadpoles, fish and eggs.
During the breeding season, coots are aggressively territorial, but otherwise, are often found in large flocks. The nest is a large bowl of wet vegetation in overhanging branches or reeds. 6 to 9 eggs are laid, but usually only 2 or 3 chicks will survive, due to starvation, or to what is called “tousle”, where the parents attack the chicks and the weaker hatchlings die. Coots are mostly found on lakes, flooded pits, reservoirs and open water areas. Here on Kefalonia, Livadi marsh and the lagoon at Argostoli are great places to watch them.
