Eurasian Coot

The Eurasian coot is a rail 36–38cm long with a wingspan of 70–80cm; males weigh about 890g and females about 750g. It is slaty black with a glossier black head and a white bill and frontal shield, the source of the phrase bald as a coot. Its long, strong toes are partly webbed for swimming, and the sexes look alike. Juveniles are paler with a whitish breast and no shield; the white shield is fully grown only at about a year old. It is noisy, with crackling, explosive and trumpeting calls, often at night (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds on freshwater lakes and ponds across much of the Old World and has adapted well to town parks. Much less secretive than most rails, it swims on open water and walks on waterside grass, bobbing its head as it swims and making short dives from a little jump. It is aggressive and strongly territorial when breeding, but forms large flocks outside the breeding season. It is reluctant to fly and patters across the water to take off. SoIB 2023 lists it as resident and a winter migrant in India, finds a current decline of about 3.5% a year, and rates it a Low conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).