{"id":18759,"date":"2015-01-25T05:23:50","date_gmt":"2015-01-25T12:23:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=18759"},"modified":"2025-10-05T15:04:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T20:04:06","slug":"american-coots-big-foot-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/01\/25\/american-coots-big-foot-birds\/","title":{"rendered":"American Coots – Big Foot Birds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"UtahUtah Bigfoot Bird – Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 320, -0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Early in January I was able to photograph a few American Coots as they walked on ice at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management area and marveled again at how big their feet are.<\/p>\n

American Coots are part of the rail family but instead of being secretive lurkers, coots are found in the open swimming, chasing, or fighting with each other.<\/p>\n

Here in Utah I often see them in the company of grebes and ducks in the marshy areas near the Great Salt Lake and at certain times of the year I see them in large numbers on the shoreline of the lake.<\/p>\n

They stay around until the water freezes over and then come back before the ice is completely gone.<\/p>\n

Back to those big feet, American Coots<\/span><\/a> use those feet to paddle in the water and when they fight they often use their feet to attack each other.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to view more of my American Coot photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Early in January I was able to photograph a few American Coots as they walked on ice at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management area and marveled again at how big their feet are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":146312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[137,27,1022,697,26],"tags":[4004,4010,4980,4979,2772,2773,4533,4121,4064,4094,4095,373],"class_list":["post-18759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-coots","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-american-coot","tag-big-feet","tag-big-foot","tag-coot","tag-coots","tag-frost-flowers","tag-fulica-americana","tag-ice","tag-marsh","tag-wetlands","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t