Rails, Crakes & Coots (Family Rallidae)

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Toko
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Rails, Crakes & Coots (Family Rallidae)

Post by Toko »

Crested Barbet wrote:Wonderful to see all these brilliant new pics! \O/


Red-knobbed Coot chick

Image


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Toko
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Re: Bird Photos - Not Park Specific

Post by Toko »

Crested Barbet wrote: Image
Here the cute chick with mum
Image

Image
Red-knobbed Coot


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Re: Bird Photos - Not Park Specific

Post by Peter Connan »

African Swamphen
Image

taken at Marievale.
Last edited by Peter Connan on Sat Oct 25, 2014 4:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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Rails, Crakes & Coots (Family Rallidae)

Post by Peter Connan »

Red-knobbed Coot

Image

Oh, sorry, he's gone already.

Stage fright is a terrible thing...
;-)


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Toko
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Re: Red-knobbed Coot - Bird of the month March 2015

Post by Toko »

Fiercly ducking this one =O: =O: =O:


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Re: Red-knobbed Coot - Bird of the month March 2015

Post by Peter Connan »

Actually, the Red-knobbed Coot is perhaps one of the most common and adaptable waterbirds in the region, and can generally be found in any wetland or largish dam with some reeds.

They are related to the Rails of the family Rallidae, and there are a number of species of Coots world-wide, but only the Red-knobbed occurs locally.

They are quite distinctive black (there is conjecture that the name "coot" is derived from the word "soot") birds with black-pupilled red eyes, a white facial shield extending upwards from the beak with two red knobs at the top of the shield. These knobs swell and become more colourful in both sexes when in breeding condition.

They occur in fairly large flocks, particularly during the breeding season, when they form some of the largest flocks of waterbirds in the region, where they mostly float around passively, often diving for underwater vegetaion which is their primary source of food. They will however also eat crustaceans, molluscs and even carrion.

Image

Primary source (for this and following posts): Beat About the Bush, Birds, by Trevor Carnaby and published by Jacana Media
ISBN: 978-1-77009-241-9


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Amoli
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Re: Red-knobbed Coot - Bird of the month March 2015

Post by Amoli »

Great choice and interesting write-up \O


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Re: Red-knobbed Coot - Bird of the month March 2015

Post by Mel »

Hilarious intro post! lol


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Re: Red-knobbed Coot - Bird of the month March 2015

Post by nan »

what an exemple to see which bird it is 0*\ --00--

I'he got the same here... but red ;-)


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Re: Red-knobbed Coot - Bird of the month March 2015

Post by Lisbeth »

Brilliant \O ...............only........I have no pics of that one 0*\


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