My Coot

I put this on a decoy forum and was asked by everyone why It didn't have a red spot on its head. How many of yall have seen Coots with red on its crown? It's made of Cedar and Basswood.

Nice Pool-doo!

Looks good. They are confusing it with a Common Gallinule or Moorhen which does have the red.

Well believe it or not I did some research and they are correct the American Coot has a red dot and the Common doesn't. But it shows the common Coot being in the European region. So now I'm 9 kinds of confused and I'm gonna ground check a limit next season for research purposes.

If its in the name of science you can shoot one now

I'll use a pellet gun so it wont kill it.

All of the ones that I ever saw in FL had the red spot. There are thousands and thousands at Lake Okeechobee














All the ones that I have seen in FL, all have the red spot on them.

I've never noticed it on one.

I wouldn't be surprised if your ground checked bird didn't have one. I bet coots are like Canadas, there are like 20 different subspecies and without putting a finger up their butt you can't tell which is which. I mean a red dot is an easy marker but do they all have them? I've seen several different bill shapes at least just googling "coot" you know those aren't all the same.

you have gotten way to hands on with your decoy carving

If I can't see the red dot on its head I'm not gonna check in its rump!

Coots from India have a red dot on their head.

Maybe you will find a pearl.

Dave is an old hand at fingering mud hens

coot pearls are very valuable

The black ones are extra rare.