Finfoots | Heliornithidae

Futenkoeten | Avesoles

A small family of three species, one on each of three continents: the African Finfoot (Podica), the Masked Finfoot of Asia and the Sungrebe of the Neotropics. Finfoots look like a cross between a grebe and a cormorant. They have a long body, a slender neck and a sharp, straight bill. They are, however, gruiforms, and molecular studies place them close to the flufftails (Sarothruridae). Instead of webs, the toes carry broad lobes. In the African Finfoot these, like the legs, are a startling scarlet to orange. The feet serve both for strong swimming and for agile clambering over branches and roots above the water. Finfoots are shy, secretive birds of quiet, shaded rivers and streams with dense overhanging vegetation. They swim low in the water with a pumping head action, keeping tight to the bank. When disturbed they slip beneath the overhang or escape in a pattering run across the surface. The diet includes aquatic insects, crabs, snails, frogs and small fish, taken from the surface, from branches or on the bank. Breeding biology is poorly known. The African Finfoot builds a nest of twigs and reeds on a branch or piece of flood debris above the water and usually lays two eggs. In the Sungrebe the male is known to carry the chicks in skin pockets beneath the wings.