An advertisement for the 1994 World Cup, fast food wrappers, COVID-19 masks—what birds used to build their nests reflects a world with more plastic. A coot bird in London on a nest made of twigs and ...

Eurasian coots are round, black waterbirds with distinctive, chicken-like feet. Each year, these birds typically build new, bowl-shaped nests using leaves, rushes and reeds. But, while nesting in ...

I’ve often wondered how the name of a waterbird — the American coot — became the pejorative “old coot” for a crotchety old man. But while watching rafts of coots recently at the Anahuac National ...

The American coot is a somewhat drab water bird with gray and black feathers and a white beak, common in wetlands throughout North America. Coot chicks, however, sport outrageously bright orange and ...

As adults, American coots have a drab color scheme, with black bodies and white bills. Their chicks, however, have an aesthetic that’s part drunk friar, part disheveled lion, and part tequila sunrise.