Dabbling vs Diving

A month ago, I learned about two kinds of bird eating behaviors: dabbling and diving. Silly me thought birds had to be strictly one or the other. I don't know why I thought that, so this is really a PSA more for myself to think twice 😅

So anyway I got really confused this weekend when I saw a coot dabbling for food at a local lake. I used to think they were strictly divers, and ducks were strictly dabblers.

I looked it up and realized like most things in life, they really live in a large venn diagram of classifications. Turns out they can be both!

Coots can dive and dabble. Ducks can do both or either depending on their species! Ducks (like mallards) that strictly dabble are called puddle ducks! It sounds so silly and fun!

To paraphrase some stuff I read:

• Dabblers upend themselves, dipping their heads below water to find food

• Divers fully submerge themselves underwater while on the hunt for food

Also fun facts, coots will sometimes steal food from ducks too! And coots also have blue feet!