With their bright orange and red feathers, North American coot chicks stick out like safety vests. A new study by the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) indicates that such coloration not only ...

While I was strolling around the lake one evening, I observed a young woman being mobbed by a crowd of avian groupies. They were about the size of a chicken with dark gray feathers, bright-white bills ...

Remarkable pictures show a coot defending its chicks from a buzzard by drowning the bird just a foot away from its nest. The images show the mother coot, which are known to be aggressively territorial ...

OK. Enough is enough. No more denial. No more looking over my shoulder. Commonly referred to as mud hen or mud duck, the American coot is neither a duck nor a hen but is actually a giant member of the ...

What looks like a duck, floats like a duck and swims like a duck, isn’t always a duck! My wife Laurie and I were reminded of this while watching American coots during our winter vacation in Southern ...

A newly hatched American coot chick shows off its colorful ornamental plumes, beak, and naked head. The bright colors of coot chicks help their parents choose favorites, according to a new study. The ...

Too many mouths to feed? Just make your babies fight each other to the death! That's a strategy some bird parents have been using since even before TheHunger Games was popular. It means the strongest ...

A cheeky coot hitched a ride on the back of a duck while the birds were being fed in a park pond. Ian Baddiley shot footage of the coot in Osborne Pond in Shipley Country Park, Derbyshire, on the ...