Giant Coot

• It is the second largest of all living rails, behind only the New Zealand takahē, which is also in this catalogue.
• It belongs to the subfamily Rallinae within Rallidae, alongside rails, moorhens and coots.
• It was described in 1841 by the French naturalists Eydoux and Souleyet.
• Its floating nest can weigh several hundred kilos: a platform of aquatic vegetation more than a metre across that the pair builds and anchors to the bottom of the lagoon, and that a person can walk on.
• It lives in lagoons above 4,000 metres, where the water freezes overnight: it is one of the highest-living waterbirds on the planet.
• Adults are all but unable to fly because of their weight and only do so as a last resort, running long stretches across the water to take off.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)

Habitat & environment

High Andean lagoons with aquatic vegetation, between 3,000 and 6,000 metres of altitude

Sexual maturity

2 years

Gestation / incubation

25 days of incubation

Litter / clutch size

3 eggs

Sources consulted: IUCN Red List 2016 (e.T22692943A93375413); IOC World Bird List v12.2 (2022); HBW y BirdLife International 2021, digital checklist v6; Eydoux y Souleyet 1841

Best time: All year round on the high Andean lagoons