WEBBED VS NON-WEBBED
Many of our habitually swimming birds have webbed feet. However, just because a bird has non-webbed toes doesn’t mean it doesn’t swim. Birds with webbed feet include all our wildfowl (swans, geese and ducks), cormorants and Gannet, tubenoses (petrels and shearwaters), divers, gulls and terns. However, grebes have lobed (not webbed) feet, as do Coots, and to a lesser extent, Moorhens and phalaropes (phalarope means ‘coot foot’), which are little waders. It may not be the first thing you notice when identifying a bird, but a little knowledge when out in the field (or by the water) can always help...