{"id":74904,"date":"2020-10-26T06:21:44","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T12:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=74904"},"modified":"2025-05-23T09:51:32","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T14:51:32","slug":"calling-american-coot-adult-portrait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/10\/26\/calling-american-coot-adult-portrait\/","title":{"rendered":"Calling American Coot Adult Portrait"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CallingCalling American Coot portrait \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/640, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

This adult American Coot may look like it is screaming but in reality it is simply calling out because another bird got close to it next to the shoreline of a small pond.<\/p>\n

I took this portrait of this calling American Coot nearly three years ago, processed it this past January and last night decided to share it here.<\/p>\n

I guess I could have come up with a catchy title for this post along the lines of “Screaming American Coot Portrait” but coots don’t scream.\u00a0 These coots grunt, squawk, and make croaking noises and are highly vocal.<\/p>\n

Examples of the calls they make can be found here<\/span><\/a> and here<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

I love to photograph American Coots and have said so many times in the 50 previous posts that I have included them in. The high contrast of their dark plumage, ivory colored bills and red eyes makes them a challenge to expose properly. They are also fun to watch as they feed, chase each other around, squabble and fight on the water and on the ground. American Coots make me laugh.<\/p>\n

I must admit that I did entertain the thought of adding a speech bubble to this image with the text “2020 Sucks” next to the coot’s bill because it has.<\/p>\n

Despite it all life is<\/em> good and birds make it better for me.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

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

This adult American Coot may look like it is screaming but in reality it is simply calling out because another bird got close to it next to the shoreline of a small pond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":146300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,27,709,26],"tags":[4004,4010,4072,4142,2772,2773,4121,2127,10698,1984,4046,8018,16369,373],"class_list":["post-74904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-coots","category-avian","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-american-coot","tag-calling","tag-close-up","tag-coot","tag-coots","tag-fulica-americana","tag-open-bill","tag-park","tag-pond","tag-portrait","tag-urban","tag-willow-pond-park","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/american-coot-calling-mia-mcpherson-8013.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-ju8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":55009,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/11\/16\/charging-american-coot-portrait-communicating-by-posture\/","url_meta":{"origin":74904,"position":0},"title":"Charging American Coot Portrait – Communicating By Posture","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 16, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I photographed this American Coot in February when parts of my local pond were frozen which caused a restriction in the space where the coots, ducks, geese and grebes could feed and there were many territorial squabbles to photograph.","rel":"","context":"In "American Coots"","block_context":{"text":"American Coots","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/gruiformes\/american-coots\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Charging American Coot portrait, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-attack-posture-mia-mcpherson-3218.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-attack-posture-mia-mcpherson-3218.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-attack-posture-mia-mcpherson-3218.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-attack-posture-mia-mcpherson-3218.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":44150,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/12\/29\/winter-american-coot-portrait\/","url_meta":{"origin":74904,"position":1},"title":"Winter American Coot Portrait","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"When the birds settled back down on the pond this American Coot walked up onto the shore with the open water behind it and I couldn't resist taking portraits of it.","rel":"","context":"In "American Coots"","block_context":{"text":"American Coots","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/gruiformes\/american-coots\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"American Coot portrait, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-portrait-mia-mcpherson-9258.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-portrait-mia-mcpherson-9258.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-portrait-mia-mcpherson-9258.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-portrait-mia-mcpherson-9258.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":62047,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/12\/14\/winter-american-coot-close-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":74904,"position":2},"title":"Winter American Coot Close Up","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 14, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"When the American Coots come close to me I am also able to take portraits of them that show their red eyes and their ivory colored bills with their reddish-brown frontal shields.","rel":"","context":"In "American Coots"","block_context":{"text":"American Coots","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/gruiformes\/american-coots\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"American Coot close up in low light, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-close-up-low-light-mia-mcpherson-3138.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-close-up-low-light-mia-mcpherson-3138.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-close-up-low-light-mia-mcpherson-3138.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-close-up-low-light-mia-mcpherson-3138.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":109807,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/01\/24\/two-american-coot-portraits\/","url_meta":{"origin":74904,"position":3},"title":"Two American Coot Portraits","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 24, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I like these two American Coot portraits that I took at my local pond two years ago. The snowy background on one and the gray in the other set off the coots.","rel":"","context":"In "American Coots"","block_context":{"text":"American Coots","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/gruiformes\/american-coots\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"American Coot with snowy background, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/american-coot-portrait-snowbank-mia-mcpherson-3734.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/american-coot-portrait-snowbank-mia-mcpherson-3734.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/american-coot-portrait-snowbank-mia-mcpherson-3734.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/american-coot-portrait-snowbank-mia-mcpherson-3734.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":79531,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/02\/18\/winter-american-coot-portraits\/","url_meta":{"origin":74904,"position":4},"title":"Winter American Coot Portraits","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 18, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"After an extremely snowy night and morning I was able to get out yesterday afternoon and take some wintry American Coot portraits close to home.","rel":"","context":"In "American Coots"","block_context":{"text":"American Coots","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/gruiformes\/american-coots\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Snowy American Coot portrait, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-winter-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3710.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-winter-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3710.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-winter-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3710.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/american-coot-winter-portrait-mia-mcpherson-3710.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":115372,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/08\/24\/baby-american-coot-images\/","url_meta":{"origin":74904,"position":5},"title":"Baby American Coot Images","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 24, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday morning, I spent some time taking photos of baby American Coots not far from where I live. It does seem late in the summer for coot chicks.","rel":"","context":"In "American Coots"","block_context":{"text":"American Coots","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/gruiformes\/american-coots\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Baby American Coot in Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/american-coot-baby-summer-mia-mcpherson-8459.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/american-coot-baby-summer-mia-mcpherson-8459.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/american-coot-baby-summer-mia-mcpherson-8459.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/american-coot-baby-summer-mia-mcpherson-8459.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}