I’ve known for years how ugly unattractive baby coots are. Yesterday it was reaffirmed.
1/2000, f/5.6, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
Yesterday morning at Bear River MBR there weren’t as many baby American Coots running around as there were at this time last year but the ones I did find were just as ugly as always. The old axiom “they’re so ugly they’re cute” seems perfectly tailored for baby coots.
This youngster followed its parent everywhere it went in hopes of being fed. The adult complied several times with edible tidbits in the minute or so I was with them.
1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
I dunno. If this baby were mine it just might starve to death.
Nah, not really. It’s more likely that I’d stuff food in its mouth at every opportunity, in the hope of speeding up its transformation into something, anything, different.
Ron
That’s pretty harsh for an old coot to make those comments about that poor little baby bird
That is a fave only a mother could love.
I’m a couple days late in responding because I’ve been in SE Oregon at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge looking at….coots! Actually, watching all birds but of course saw many coots. I think the saddest thing about baby coots is that they grow up to have the same ugly and kinda frightening feet as the adult coots.
That baby looks the way I feel this morning. So perhaps I will think of myself as cugly in the mornings…
I hope you feel better very soon, EC.
Your last comments made me snort laugh. But I believe I read that their babies hatch in intervals, making the youngest, the reddest and therefore the preferred babies to feed. And the older ones are chased out. Has anyone else heard that explanation for the parents behavior?
Pat, the variaton that I heard is in my response to Barb below.
I think they are adorable, I love the way they wave their little undeveloped florescent yellow wings when begging.
April, adorably ugly works for me..
Like Kris, these photos made me laugh! And like Michael’s daughter, the baby looks a lot like what greeted us this weekend on my niece’s return from the “beauty” salon – her first foray into teen “this is me” color experimentation. Of course, greeted with “Oh, we LOVE your hair!” So, I LOVE this baby coot! 🤣
Carolyn, in situations like you describe, one has to be… diplomatic. 🙂
I can’t help laughing at your last 2 paragraphs!!! This juvie is certainly not the cutest on the water! Then Coots are not exactly handsome birds. As my Dad used to say: It is so ugly it’s cute! I love the photos. Great shots, Ron.
Thanks very much, Melanie. I’m glad you laughed. I was afraid some would think I was being cruel or heartless.
this one doesn’t have a really red top – i think you know the biology that coots have litters that are too big – so the preferred babies have a redder head – also the parents prefarably feed the baby with the reddest head – they will also peck the head of non-preferred baby and actually kill babies they can’t raise effectively – interesting evolution
I did knot know this about Coots! Sad evolutionary quirk. It is a wonder the species has survived.
“Sad evolutionary quirk.
Melanie, if it works for them perhaps it isn’t so sad. But I know what you mean.
Only reason they survived it because humans don’t want to eat them.
Barb, yes, I remember reading about that explanation for their head color in Cornell’s Birds of the World. Here’s what they have to say about it:
“These brilliant head colorations and facial down ornamentation apparently attract and stimulate parent birds to feed begging young, which display these parts conspicuously in same manner as colorful gapes are displayed by altricial young of other species (Boyd and Alley 1948). Experimental manipulations have confirmed importance of head coloration of young coots in attracting and securing parental feeding “
I have seen them like that Ron, but not too long after that they become fairly good looking birds – or at least they appear that way to me – have taken quite a few photos of them in our various lakes – I think God made them to amuse us:) Also, unfortunately for them, they are the last resort meals for raptors who were unable to catch a fish etc. I have seen eagles, Northern Harriers, and Prairie Falcons kill and eat them.
I agree Everett. I’ve also seen Peregrine Falcon’s eating coots.
https://www.featheredphotography.com/blog/2018/01/05/a-peregrine-falcon-and-a-frozen-coot/
Don’t be mean about the babies — you know how feisty adult coots can get. 😉 I do wonder about the evolutionary advantage of the day-glo orange, though.
I wonder about it too, Marty. Big time.
Awwww, I think perhaps she’s so ugly that she’s actually cute. Kinda like the “ugliest dog” contests. . .anything that can make you smile can’t be completely ugly.
“anything that can make you smile can’t be completely ugly.”
Good point. But I must say, none of the winners of ugly dog contests have ever made me smile. All I do is shudder. And feel sympathy.
Believe it or not baby Coots are more attractive than baby Common Gallinules!
At least there’s SOMETHING out there like that…
That photo ( #2 ) actually made me laugh out loud at 6 am– quite
an accomplishment ??? Maybe this is an evolutionary trick to
save coot babies from being eaten– what self-respecting predator would pick up such an ugly little morsel ?
Kris, whatever the reason for it, it does make one wonder…
WOW! They certainly ARE “unattractive” GEEZ! 🙂 Must be a reason for it – perhaps to deter predators?
“perhaps to deter predators?”
Could be, Judy. No way I could eat that… 🙂
“they’re so ugly they’re cute”
Reminds me of when my daughter, when in her teens, she was going through this phase of coloring her hair in some of the most unnatural dayglow colors one could imagine. My wife wisely instructed me to not criticize. Like the Coots, she grew out of it, and transformed into a wonderful young lady.
With all this in mind, I look at that second photo and say, she is a beauty! Really is a nice photo.
“I look at that second photo and say, she is a beauty! Really is a nice photo.”
Michael, I really like that last photo too. For me it’s the contrast between the lovely water colors and the… less than lovely… baby coot.