A striking floater in the water of the Kattenburgervaart. The white coot that has nestled there attracted the attention of Niek Adamse during a walk. “It’s white and that catches your eye pretty quickly.”
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Bird watcher Arjan Dwarshuis is also impressed, but it is not extremely rare, he says. “If it had been an albino, then yes,” he says. “But this coot has leucism, which is a shortage of pigment cells, which causes white spots in the plumage. And this animal is almost completely white, so that is special. I have seen such a white coot once before.”
Coots with this condition are more common, but despite this, according to the bird expert, it is interesting to see the animal in the middle of the city.
‘Think about a chicken’
Niek Adamse is a bird lover and has never seen such a coot before. He tipped NH News/AT5 immediately upon returning home. “I walk here, look into the water and suddenly see a white bird,” said the tipster. “I thought of a duck, it wasn’t. So then I thought for a moment about a chicken, but it wasn’t. It turned out to be just a coot. But a white one, you don’t see that very often.”
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Asking around in the neighborhood makes it clear that the unusual bird has been bobbing around in the water for much longer. “He’s been here for years,” says a local resident on her balcony overlooking the water. “And then I see what he’s eating, of course, but I don’t think he knows what he is himself. He doesn’t get a connection and I think that’s so pathetic, but yes, nature is nature.”
More aggressive than peers
According to the birdwatcher, this is characteristic of the white coot. “What you see in leucistic birds is that they are more aggressive and bite harder,” explains the expert. “The reason is because they have it harder, because they can find a partner less easily. So they are more quickly placed outside the group and have a harder time getting food.”
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