Coot

Project summary

3,816
Birds colour-marked

9,690+
Sightings received

2008
Year project started

Colour-marks used

White leg ring, 3 black characters (letters or numbers) on one leg with BTO metal on other leg
Combination of 3 colours on one leg with BTO metal on other leg
Combination of 2 colours on one leg and a single colour with BTO metal on other leg

Colour rings currently used: orange, yellow, white, dark blue, light blue, green, mauve, pink, red, lime, black

report a sighting
#cootstudy
Background

Despite being such a common resident and winter visitor on freshwater lakes and reservoirs in Britain and Ireland, much remains to be learnt about the movements of Coot. An understudied and often overlooked species, we started colour-marking Coot in 2008 to learn more about their fascinating movements. Despite rarely seeing Coot fly, they are far from sedentary and are rather nomadic in their movements. Our study hopes to bring about a better understanding of the movements of British Coot, along with collecting information on site fidelity and survival.

Initially our study intended to only catch and ring birds in North-west England, however since 2013 we have rolled out the study to incorporate other areas in Britain and Ireland, with 25 BTO ringers now contributing to the catch effort for colour-marking Coot.

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