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killer coot (1 Viewer)

J

JD.1

Well-known member
Hello all just wondered if any of you out in birding land have seen this, been out to Rutland today looking out the mallard hide, my friend matthew and i were observing these two pair of coots when world war 3 struck out, the male (i presume) caught the other male and then started to fight feet against feet then progressed to beaks, the larger coot managed to get the head of the other coot in its beak then got on top of it and pushed the other coot under the water for a few minutes, after a struggle the bird under the water stopped flapping and just floated, i looked at my friend in horror and i just couldnt believe what i had seen, a few others saw it in the hide as well and they had never seen anything like it , Have any of you seen a psycho coot from hell?????

thnx J.D.:eek!:
 
JD.1 said:
Hello all just wondered if any of you out in birding land have seen this, been out to Rutland today looking out the mallard hide, my friend matthew and i were observing these two pair of coots when world war 3 struck out, the male (i presume) caught the other male and then started to fight feet against feet then progressed to beaks, the larger coot managed to get the head of the other coot in its beak then got on top of it and pushed the other coot under the water for a few minutes, after a struggle the bird under the water stopped flapping and just floated, i looked at my friend in horror and i just couldnt believe what i had seen, a few others saw it in the hide as well and they had never seen anything like it , Have any of you seen a psycho coot from hell?????

thnx J.D.:eek!:
Click to expand...

Coots are well known for their very aggressive behaviour and I've seen plenty of 'Coot battles' but I've never heard of anything quite this extreme.
 
Coots killing each other over territory is not unheard of, they're really aggressive and two evenly matched males will fight to the death or until one finally gives in and flees. They're stubborn devils sometimes and will not back down. The loser sometimes dies later on from the shock of its injuries even if the immediate observer sees it fleeing and thinks an amicable resolution was reached. Moorhens also really go at each other, a pair were scrapping with beak and claw for about five minutes on Stanley Park Lake on Sunday and they weren't taking any prisoners.

It makes sense for an individual Coot to permanently remove a rival if it can and in terms of survival of the species it means in prime territory only the strongest and fittest males pass on their genes. This strategy must be working because Coots are pretty successful.

Nature isn't always nice...
 
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hi dave it was terrible to watch but it was just one of those things you couldn't stop watching

cheers J.D.
 
As others have said coots (of all species) are notoriously pugnacious. Here's an account of a fight to the death between American Coots (from A. C. Bent's Life Histories of North American Birds).

"A strange mud hen [= coot) swam from the creek into the quiet water. The first of the 3 [resident coots] to see him attacked the stranger at once, "putting" harshly, and the intruder gave battle without the slightest attempt to retreat. They pecked at each other savagely. The other 2. . . [residents] swam up to the fray, one of them joining in, the other, the smallest of the 3 and probably the female, simply looking on. In time they pecked the strange mud hen into a state of exhaustion. It was manifestly too weak to fly, but tried to make its escape by swimming. They followed it up, and one actually stood on its body while the other held its head under the water until it was dead. When satisfied of this, they left it."
 
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A few years ago a pair of coots nested on a tern raft in East India Dock Basin, London, a common tern took exception to this and attacked one of the coots and was promptly beaten up, it flew to an adjacent raft and died and it's corpse remained all summer with the chicks of other common terns using it as a vantage point to locate their incoming parents, nature eh? you gotta love it!

Nick
 
The following talks about American Coots but I think the same applies:
Territorial Pugnacity

Except for migration and common defense, coots are always defending their own small patch of real estate. Two determined coots may fight to the death with one holding the other under water until it drowns. The majority of calls and displays of the coot relate to defending territory.
Click to expand...

http://www.beakycoot.com/misinformation.html
 
Coots will often kill their own offspring if they have a large brood and are very intolerant of intruders,
I have often witnessed battles where a group of males go at it hammer and tongs, each attacking whoever happens to be near until territories are established.
Paradoxically, during the winter we get huge rafts of coots on Cheddar reservoir that live quite peacable lives.
It always amazes me that as soon as breeding seasons starts they just seem to disappear virtually overnight.
 
Stranger said:
Coots will often kill their own offspring if they have a large brood and are very intolerant of intruders,
I have often witnessed battles where a group of males go at it hammer and tongs, each attacking whoever happens to be near until territories are established.
Paradoxically, during the winter we get huge rafts of coots on Cheddar reservoir that live quite peacable lives.
It always amazes me that as soon as breeding seasons starts they just seem to disappear virtually overnight.
Click to expand...

I'm with you there. I've noticed the same thing over the last week. Suddenly they're calling like mad, patrolling angrily and can't stand the sight of each other whereas before there were huge rafts of them taking safety in numbers.
 
JD.1
...as to you're question 'have any of you seen a psycho coot from hell'???.........well..........i went out with a girl years ago....and.....boy o boy......she must have been related to a volcano or something..!! [don't think it was the 'time of the year' type thing...as with you're coots]!

Never seen a scrap 'to the death' with coots by the way......did you have money on the winner?! [kiddin...obviously]?!
 
i saw coots fighting a couple of weeks ago at ryemeads rspb. i must say i was quite shocked at the aggression . i took a few pics as well i,ll post them if i get time. family have just arrived in for dinner.
 
username ...thats a thought organised viewing of coot battles (now im truly kidding ....honest! ) it seems by this thread that coots are just homocidal thanks to all with their info
cheers jd
 
I was watching a couple of Coots earlier today kicking the sh** out of eachother when another 4 or 5 decided to join in and make it a free for all.

It was like watching a fight on the terraces from the 70's.
 
I wonder if 'oriental type' coots engage in some sort of [slow motion] kung-fu kick boxing?...now that i wud pay to see!
I can see them now.......[dam...i wish i cud project my 'mental images' into computers]!
 
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