I will be the first to admit when I go bird watching on a wetland, the American coot isn’t a bird that easily grabs my attention, well, until last week, that is.
Last Wednesday, while visiting Farmington Bay for a quick birding excursion, I witnessed and photographed something I had never seen before to this degree, two American coots battling like a couple of cagey roosters squabbling over a flock of hens.
I won’t have room in this blog post for all the images I took of the melee so take a look at the end of this post for a few more images of this battle between the American coots I caught fighting at Farmington Bay a few days ago.
Spend any amount of time out on a wetland during the breeding season and you will quickly notice the American coot is a pretty feisty bird when defending its territory but up until last week I wasn’t aware of just how fierce they can be.
I had just pulled into the main gate at Farmington Bay WMA and slowly started to drive the asphalt road in search of birds to photograph for this blog.
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But up ahead a pair of coots standing in the middle of the road quickly caught my attention as they began to fight with one another.
The disagreement quickly escalated to what turned into a full-scale battle for a coveted piece of marsh real estate that lasted for 5 minutes or longer when one of the coots was run out of town, so to speak.
The two coots battled for a while on the roadway, each pecking and clawing like a pair of male ringneck pheasants during the breeding season, another bird that is quite ruthless when their hormones get the best of them during springtime.
Just when I thought the battle was going to wind down, it moved to the water and intensified 10-fold as the new battleground seemed to give each contestant renewed vigor.
The two coots sparred ever so brutally in the water for several more minutes.
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At one point I actually thought one of the coots was dead as it lay in the water motionless while the other coot kept up the attack.
Luckily, both coots survived the brawl with it finally ending as one coot reluctantly retreated to a distant portion of the pond.
American coots fight to defend their territory and mates and these battles can be very fierce as I found out last week.
Most of the time, however, it is a short chase and the offending coot quickly leaves.
But once in a while the contested piece of marsh is too valuable to give up that easily and a fierce battle between two American coots looking to establish a nesting territory ensues.
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I’m just glad I had my camera with me and it was ready to go when the fight broke out just a few yards ahead of me at Farmington Bay.
The American coot is found all over North America, including most of the United States and a good portion of Canada, either only during the breeding season in some areas or year-round in other places.
Here in Utah, the American coot is found pretty much throughout the entire state in wetlands and shallow lakes such as the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge auto tour route, Mantua Reservoir, Farmington Bay, and Cutler Reservoir, to name a few places.
American coots feed mainly on aquatic vegetation such as duckweed, eelgrass, sedges, hydrilla, water lilies, and cattails but will also feed on insects, crustaceans, and small vertebrates and occasionally on dry vegetation as well.
So next time you are visiting a place like Farmington Bay, keep an eye out for the American coot, it just might put on a show like it did for me last week.
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