{"id":44690,"date":"2017-02-01T06:00:12","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T13:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=44690"},"modified":"2025-10-08T09:02:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T14:02:23","slug":"american-coot-being-chased-by-mallards-for-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/02\/01\/american-coot-being-chased-by-mallards-for-food\/","title":{"rendered":"American Coot Being Chased By Mallards For Food"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"American<\/a>American Coot being chased by Mallards – Nikon D500, f8, 1\/500, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Early in January I photographed an American Coot being chased by two Mallards for the food it carried in its bill.<\/p>\n

American Coots are both intraspecific and interspecific kleptoparasites meaning that they will steal food from their own species and other species.<\/p>\n

I see that kind of behavior from them often with their own kind, less often with other species. Some ducks are also intraspecific and interspecific kleptoparasites.<\/p>\n

These Mallards were.<\/p>\n

In this photo the coot knew it was being chased and was swimming to the shoreline with its bill filled with aquatic vegetation as fast as it could with the two Mallards on its tail.<\/p>\n

As the coot moved through the water the Mallards were snatching up bits of the vegetation with their bills that fell out of the clump back into the water.<\/p>\n

The American Coot<\/span><\/a> had done the work of bringing the food to the surface, the Mallards gained food without much effort on their part.<\/p>\n

The coot didn’t look very happy that the ducks were chasing after it but to be fair coots kind of look grumpy most of the time.<\/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

*Kleptoparasitism or cleptoparasitism (literally, parasitism by theft) is a form of feeding in which one animal takes prey or other food from another that has caught, collected, or otherwise prepared the food, including stored food.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Early in January I photographed an American Coot being chased by two Mallards for the food it carried in its bill. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,27,965,709,26],"tags":[4010,4237,4284,2772,2773,4717,1129,126,1130,4121,5640,5639,5641,5638,1604,10698,1984,8018,373],"class_list":["post-44690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-coots","category-avian","category-mallards","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-utah","tag-american-coot","tag-anas-platyrhynchos","tag-chase","tag-coot","tag-coots","tag-dabbling-ducks","tag-duck","tag-ducks-2","tag-food","tag-fulica-americana","tag-interspecific","tag-intraspecific","tag-kleptoparasites","tag-kleptoparasitism","tag-mallard","tag-park","tag-pond","tag-urban","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/american-coot-mallards-food-mia-mcpherson-2364.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-bCO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6718,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/12\/06\/three-years-ago-today-when-it-was-actually-winter\/","url_meta":{"origin":44690,"position":0},"title":"Three Years Ago Today When It Was Actually Winter","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Three years ago today though the ground was covered in drifts of snow, the temps were below freezing, there was ice on the ponds & lakes and there was a sharp briskness to the air that can only be found in winter.","rel":"","context":"In "American Coots"","block_context":{"text":"American Coots","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/gruiformes\/american-coots\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ring-billed Gull on the edge of ice in Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-winter-mia-mcpherson-8512.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ring-billed-gull-winter-mia-mcpherson-8512.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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