COOTS : Fulica atra
These are black with a white beak and feet. Its feet have distinctive lobed flaps of skin on the toes which act in the same way as webbed feet when swimming. They eat vegetation, seeds, snails and insect larvae. Its nest is built of twigs rising above the water level. If you are lucky, you may see a parent moorhen leading some small chicks tentatively across some marshy water, each calling to ensure contact with the others.
Compare with : MOORHENS
A coot. (Photo taken at Linlithgow Loch).
A coot dabbling and diving. (Photo taken in Glasgow).
An elegant proud and caring parent feeds morsels to 3 young.
A rather ugly coot chick.
With early ambitions to transcend the ugly and become elegant too. This sibling, perhaps with a few days advantage over the one above, has already taken on some of the white chest of an intermediate stage.
Compare this to moorhen chicks which begin life as tiny pure black pompoms and then progress to elegant grey "teenagers" becfore becoming black and red adults. In most other respects these two species share habits and habitats.
RSPB : https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/coot/
