The Australian coot. (Fulica prisca)

The Australian coot is a smart, dark-grey, duck-like waterbird, instantly recognisable from its bright white bill and frontal shield. Coots are related to gallinules – the branch of the rail family that includes pukeko and takahe. Out of the water, a coot’s stance is more like a small pukeko than a duck. But instead of the pukeko’s long thin toes, coots have broad fleshy lobes on their short toes, used to give propulsion when swimming. The Australian coot is a recent arrival in New Zealand, first recorded breeding here in 1958. Their colonisation partially fills the niche left vacant by the extinction of the New Zealand coot, a bird 3 x the size (1.8 kg) that was widespread before the arrival of Maori.