The official name is American Coot, but it’s commonly called the “mudhen”. This water bird looks like a cross between a duck and a chicken, but it belongs to the rail family. Its toes have lobed or “scalloped” edges that produce very effective paddles for swimming and diving.
Weak flyers, coots require a take-off run, on land or water, to get airborne and prefer to land in water. Usually gregarious, coots frequently live in parks and on golf courses, as well as sumps and natural ponds, where they feed on aquatic vegetation, “dabbling” and diving. In recreation areas they usually are a nuisance because of the excrement they spread on the lawn or golf green and regularly are trapped and removed.
Nesting in ponds and marshes, the nest is hidden in the cattails or reeds or made of a floating mass of vegetation. The downy young are reddish-orange and hide in the plants of the breeding site when danger approaches. The bird in this photo had a broken wing that healed improperly so it cannot fly. It has lived in the pond at the Enviornmental Studies Area since 1994; it often walks out of the pond, but quickly retreats to the safety of the water when people come too near.
If you want to see a mudhen in person, visit Magee marsh, which is located about 35 minutes east of Toledo, in mid to late April where you will see hundreds of these birds.
