Why Coot Chicks Look So Bizarre – A Short Wildlife Documentary
- Greg
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
In the past years I’ve spent quite a bit of time sitting on the shores of my local river, looking for native wildlife to photograph. I went out for specific species, but as is always the case, I found a lot more — and, also as always, I rarely found what I was actually looking for. This simple rule of wildlife photography didn’t cause me to despair, at least not after I learned to embrace the situation and forget about my neatly made plans.
A surprise encounter: the muskrat
Accepting and enjoying whatever wildlife came along is how I learned that muskrats also call the river their home. I saw the food chain in action, with dragonflies and damselflies laying their eggs just feet away from coots picking insect larvae out of the water for their young.
Why coot chicks look so bizarre
Seeing these different species always sent me on a deep dive into the internet to find out more about them, which sometimes gave me a good storyline for my wildlife short docs. The latest one is about the coots mentioned above, and how these bland‑looking birds have the wildest, most conspicuously colored chicks. Searching for the reasons behind this ornamentation made me stumble upon a great article exploring the phenomenon, and it fueled the creation of my latest YouTube short documentary.
The documentary
Witnessing the chicks’ charm and the tireless dedication of their parents made me want to share their story.
Every encounter on the river seems to spark another question, another search, and eventually another story to tell.
Related videos
If you liked the coots, here is another video of parents feeding their chicks.
For more wildlife shorts, you can find the full collection on my YouTube channel.
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