American coot old. The American coot is a migratory bird that occupies most of North America. It lives in the Pacific and southwestern United States and Mexico year-round and occupies more northeastern regions during the summer breeding season. In the winter they can be found as far south as Panama. Coots generally build floating nests and lay 8–12 eggs per clutch. Females and males have similar appearances, but they can be distinguished during aggressive displays by the larger ruff (head plumage) on the male. American coots eat primarily algae and other aquatic plants but also animals (both vertebrates and invertebrates) when available.
Coot (software) achieved by ensuring that tools for common tasks are 'discoverable' through familiar user interface elements (menus and toolbars), or by intuitive behaviour (mouse controls). Recent developments have enhanced the usability of the software for expert users, with customisable key bindings, extensions, and an extensive scripting interface. Coot is free software, distributed under the GNU GPL. It is available from the Coot web site originally at the University of York, and now at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Pre-compiled binaries are also available for Linux and Windows from the web page and CCP4, and for Mac OS X through Fink