I’ve noticed that it is not uncommon to hear comments like “ Look at those lovely little coot, or moorhen, or whatever” as you walk past people admiring small black duck like birds in canals and ponds.

I’ve done it myself but, honestly, they are not that difficult to tell apart.

One way of remembering that a coot is a coot and not a moorhen is the phrase ‘bald as a coot’ which refers to the area of white bare skin on their foreheads called a frontal shield and which matches their white beak.

On a visit to London recently I didn’t anticipate seeing any wildlife of note, let alone a gorgeous family of coot snuggled up in an old tyre on the back of a Regent’s Canal barge, confusingly called The Goose. Three tiny brown baby coot were snuggled up in what appears to be a pile of dry grass with two adults constantly diving for soft submerged plants and popping up like corks before presenting dinner to their young.

Young coots, unlike young moorhen, are very bright with reddish cheeks, bare heads and brown speckled bodies.

Coots benefitted greatly from the boom in quarrying for building sand and the resulting flooded pits suit their feeding habits.

Back home in Addingham moorhen often nest on old mill ponds in the village. Unlike the coot, their young start out black rather than brown and already have a tiny red beak. The yellow tip develops with age.

The name ‘moorhen’ has nothing to do with moorland but derives from the Anglo Saxon word ‘mor’ meaning mere or bog and they can happily adapt to any stretch of fresh water. They seem to have a wider variety of food in their diet adding insects, worms, snails ,fruit and even small fish to the water plants.

Both coots and moorhens build similar nests in the form of platforms of reeds and dry water plants sometimes floating or built just above the water line and both can be aggressive in defence of their territory or young.

As well as the beautiful red and yellow beak the moorhen has white tail feathers and a white strip along the side of the body.

Large feet can make them rather ungainly both getting out of the water when they paddle along for a while and also while swimming which can look rather jerky.

So next time you see a coot, or is it a moorhen?….I hope now that you’ll know for sure!