-
Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.
Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
coot attacking irs own chick right after it fed it. (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Mila
- Start date
Very strange behaviour. It seems to be the only chick too.
That one has me stumped really.
That one has me stumped really.
PYRTLE
Old Berkshire Boy
Yep, not nice and it was carried put by humans too, Chinese remote farm work where very sadly our birding group stumbled across a sparsely decorated memorial back in '92 ( under the then regime's only one child per couple ruling ) as our ground agent explained. I remember feeling extremely glum and solemn for the rest of the day. Ah well.
I too cannot understand why as the chick looks very healthy, it's usually the smallest, timid ones that are despatched, guess it is in the genetics of these species and we know how aggressive they can be.
I too cannot understand why as the chick looks very healthy, it's usually the smallest, timid ones that are despatched, guess it is in the genetics of these species and we know how aggressive they can be.
Last edited:
Mila
Well-known member
Yes, I know they attack the smallest chicks, but to attack the only chick... it was strange, and btw it was the second attack in 5 minutes. I did not film the first one.
Hi,
I believe I read an article in the German bird watching magazine "Vögel" which described that coots commonly aggressively discourage chicks from begging for food instead of foraging for themselves. So the kind of behaviour you describe in your headline is typical for coots.
(As your Youtube link somehow doesn't make it through my various spam filters, the headline is all I'm going by.)
Coots employ a strategy of breeding for numbers, in a habitat that can be difficult with regard to food. They time their breeding so that the chicks hatch one after, so you can have older chicks in full immature plumage alongside freshly hatched pulli.
The older chicks often also help to feed the younger chicks.
It seems that sometimes, the "feeding" and the "discouraging" instincts collide, and then the parents (or, as my girl friend once observed, older siblings) alternate between feeding a begging chick and attacking it.
I'd say that normally, the chick should be equipped with instincts to either endure the attack (if it's truly unable to find food on its own), as the parents aren't actually out to harm the chick, or to go and find its own food (because the parents would be instictually equipped to only discourage fit chicks from begging).
Of course, there are situations when there just isn't enough food around for all the chicks to survive, and then it can be nasty. However, normally this kind of behaviour seems to be a adaptation that ensures the best chances of survival for the greatest number of chicks.
Regards,
Henning
[Edited to get rid of nonsense apostrophes]
I believe I read an article in the German bird watching magazine "Vögel" which described that coots commonly aggressively discourage chicks from begging for food instead of foraging for themselves. So the kind of behaviour you describe in your headline is typical for coots.
(As your Youtube link somehow doesn't make it through my various spam filters, the headline is all I'm going by.)
Coots employ a strategy of breeding for numbers, in a habitat that can be difficult with regard to food. They time their breeding so that the chicks hatch one after, so you can have older chicks in full immature plumage alongside freshly hatched pulli.
The older chicks often also help to feed the younger chicks.
It seems that sometimes, the "feeding" and the "discouraging" instincts collide, and then the parents (or, as my girl friend once observed, older siblings) alternate between feeding a begging chick and attacking it.
I'd say that normally, the chick should be equipped with instincts to either endure the attack (if it's truly unable to find food on its own), as the parents aren't actually out to harm the chick, or to go and find its own food (because the parents would be instictually equipped to only discourage fit chicks from begging).
Of course, there are situations when there just isn't enough food around for all the chicks to survive, and then it can be nasty. However, normally this kind of behaviour seems to be a adaptation that ensures the best chances of survival for the greatest number of chicks.
Regards,
Henning
[Edited to get rid of nonsense apostrophes]
Last edited:
