Quote:
Originally Posted by lwcamp
It still surprised me though, the first time. I thought "Hmmm. Ducks: Highly adapted to the surface of the water. Me: using non-locomotor appendages for things they were never really adapted for doing. Surely the duck will win". Nope. Of course, they can fly way faster than I can paddle - a fact that they use with great vigor whenever I get within 100 m or so.
The same observation also applies to geese, coots, and swans. Although the coots do this literally running on water thing, partially flying but using their feet to push off from the surface as they go, leaving a series of ripples for tracks until they think they've gone far enough and then - ploop - back into the water.
Luke
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Swans also do a similar running on water thing/half-flying when they're in attack mode. I once saw a video taken by someone on shore of a male swan racing to attack a man in a boat by half-flying like that. Very fast, very scary. It was attached to a news story, the guy in the boat was seriously injured.
@Humabout - Definitely full amphibious for a cormorant. Those birds are excellent divers, more agile underwater than on land. Having all four toes webbed instead of having a free rear toe like ducks is helpful in the water, but makes land-based locomotion even more awkward than the far-back legs alone would.