Check out the feet on this American Coot. We see coots most often in the water, feet not visible. This one had come ashore at Lake Benton a few days ago to nibble on lakeshore vegetation. Notice the lobes on its long toes. They spread the bird’s weight, allowing it to walk atop lake vegetation, lily pads for example.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 3rd, 2009 at 8:35 pm and is filed under Bird biology, Bird identification. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.