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Bird

American Coot

Fulica americana

Lives in Florida all year and nests here. Found in all 67 counties, across 14 habitats.

Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
All 67 counties
Habitats
14

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
All 67 counties
Habitats
14
Habitat models
Summer, Winter

Where it lives

The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.

Habitats in Florida 14

Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.

1 of 14

Freshwater marshes

Georgia pond and emergent wetland
SummerWinterSouth Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh; Floridian Highlands Freshwater MarshRegional / representative. Shown: Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, Georgia; representative pond ecosystem, a neighboring state.Georgia pond and emergent wetland, Robert 'Bob' Hynes, 1997. Public domain. Source record.

Ponds, lakes and their shores

Georgia pond and emergent wetland
SummerWinterOpen Water (Fresh)Regional / representative. Shown: Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, Georgia; representative pond ecosystem, a neighboring state.Georgia pond and emergent wetland, Robert 'Bob' Hynes, 1997. Public domain. Source record.

Swamps

Loblolly bay in a coastal swamp
SummerWinterSouthern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Bay/Gum Modifier; Southern Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall; East Gulf Coastal Plain Tidal Wooded Swamp; Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plain Swamp Systems; Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Tidal Wooded Swamp; South Florida Bayhead Swamp; Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin SwampRegional / representative. Shown: Southern coastal swamps, Florida to Virginia; state not identified, a neighboring state.Loblolly bay in a coastal swamp, Marian Ellis Rowan, 1901. Public domain. Source record.

Coastal dunes and beaches

Open sand of beaches, dunes and the hollows between them.

SummerWinterUnconsolidated Shore (Beach/Dune); Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain Interdunal Wetland

Coastal Plain hammocks

Dense, evergreen groves of live oak, magnolia and other hardwoods in the southern Coastal Plain, from dry oak domes to wet hydric hammocks and south Florida's tropical hammocks; salt-shaped maritime hammocks are maritime forests.

SummerWinterSouthern Coastal Plain Hydric Hammock

Coastal Plain seepage bogs

Open, wet, seepage-fed bogs of the Coastal Plain and Sandhills, often with pitcher plants.

SummerWinterSouthern Coastal Plain Herbaceous Seepage Bog

Coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated)

Tidal marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where the source does not say whether the water is fresh, brackish or salt. A stated salinity files the marsh under freshwater tidal marshes or salt and brackish marshes instead.

Winter

Depression ponds and limesinks

Shallow ponds in Coastal Plain depressions, such as limesinks and the ponds in some Carolina bays, that rise and fall with the seasons.

SummerWinterCentral Florida Herbaceous Pondshore

Freshwater tidal marshes

Marshes along tidal rivers where the water is fresh but rises and falls with the tide.

SummerWinterFlorida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh

Mangrove swamps

Tidal forests and thickets of red, black and white mangrove along sheltered tropical and subtropical shores.

Winter

Salt and brackish marshes

Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.

WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh; Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh; Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh

Sounds, bays and tidal flats

Salt and brackish open water of sounds, bays and estuaries, with the mud and sand flats and seagrass beds that tides cover and uncover; the vegetated marsh is salt and brackish marshes.

WinterOpen Water (Brackish/Salt)

Disturbed and introduced wetlands

Wet ground taken over by weedy or introduced plants after disturbance, such as common reed, Chinese tallow or tamarisk stands; the upland counterpart is roadsides, fields and disturbed ground.

SummerWinterBeside its main habitat.

Floodplain and bottomland forests

Forests on low ground beside rivers and streams that flood from time to time.

SummerWinterBeside its main habitat.Atlantic Coastal Plain Blackwater Stream Floodplain Forest - Forest Modifier; Atlantic Coastal Plain Small Blackwater River Floodplain Forest; East Gulf Coastal Plain Small Stream and River Floodplain Forest; Southern Coastal Plain Blackwater River Floodplain Forest
Other habitats in its models (26)

Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Florida.

  • Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer and winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Pine Modifier Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Peatland Pocosin Summer and winter.
  • Central Interior and Appalachian Swamp Systems Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Central Florida Herbaceous Seep Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Nonriverine Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest - Oak Dominated Modifier Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • South Florida Dwarf Cypress Savanna Summer and winter.
  • South Florida Wet Marl Prairie Summer and winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Summer and winter.
  • Southern Piedmont/Ridge and Valley Upland Depression Swamp Summer and winter.
  • Mississippi River Bottomland Depression Summer and winter.
  • South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Summer and winter.
  • Central Appalachian Riparian - Forest Modifier Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • South-Central Interior Large Floodplain - Forest Modifier Summer and winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Herbaceous Modifier Winter, beside its main habitat.
  • Central Interior and Appalachian Riparian Systems Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • Mississippi River Low Floodplain (Bottomland) Forest Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Small Brownwater River Floodplain Forest Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Brownwater Stream Floodplain Forest Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • South-Central Interior Small Stream and Riparian Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • Mississippi River Floodplain and Riparian Forest Summer and winter.
  • Lower Mississippi River Flatwoods Summer and winter, only within 250 m of water.

All habitats

Seasons in Florida

  • Year-round: nests here, in all 67 counties.
  • Winter: does not nest here, in 13 of 67 counties.

Also found in this habitat

Plants 515

Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Florida. Shared habitat, not food.

Wildlife 277

Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Florida. Not sighting records.

NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.

Sources