Bird
American Coot
Fulica americana
Lives in Louisiana all year and nests here. Found in all 64 parishes, across 9 habitats.
- Here
- All year
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- All 64 parishes
- Habitats
- 9

At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- All year
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- All 64 parishes
- Habitats
- 9
- Habitat models
- Summer, Winter
Where it lives
The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.
Habitats in Louisiana 9
Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.
Open sand of beaches, dunes and the hollows between them.
Open, wet, seepage-fed bogs of the Coastal Plain and Sandhills, often with pitcher plants.
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.
Floodplain and bottomland forests
Forests on low ground beside rivers and streams that flood from time to time.
Still water and its edges: ponds, lakes, millponds and reservoirs.
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.
Forested wetlands with standing water much of the year, such as cypress and gum swamps.
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.
Flat, poorly drained uplands and terraces with oaks, sweetgum and sometimes loblolly pine, wet in winter and dry in summer, but neither a floodplain nor a swamp.
Other habitats in its models (41)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Louisiana.
- Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer and winter.
- Unconsolidated Shore Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Winter.
- Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Bay/Gum Modifier Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
- 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 Southern Tidal Wooded Swamp Winter.
- South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh Summer and winter.
- Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter.
- Central Florida Herbaceous Seep Summer and winter.
- Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- South Florida Mangrove Swamp Winter.
- South Florida Bayhead Swamp Summer and winter.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh 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.
- Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Summer and winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Summer and winter.
- Southern Piedmont/Ridge and Valley Upland Depression Swamp Summer and winter.
- South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Blackwater Stream Floodplain Forest - Forest Modifier Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
- 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.
- Southern Coastal Plain Hydric Hammock Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Small Brownwater River Floodplain Forest Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Small Blackwater 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.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Small Stream and River Floodplain Forest Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
- Southern Coastal Plain Blackwater River Floodplain Forest Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
Seasons in Louisiana
- Year-round: nests here, in 6 of 64 parishes.
- Winter: does not nest here, in all 64 parishes.
Also found in this habitat
Plants 272
Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Louisiana. Shared habitat, not food.
- Harper's Yellow-eyed-grassXyris scabrifolia
- Carolina Red MapleAcer rubrum var. trilobum
- Creeping SpotflowerAcmella oppositifolia var. repens
- Red BuckeyeAesculus pavia
- Agalinis filicaulisAgalinis filicaulis
- Woodland AgrimonyAgrimonia rostellata
- New York FernAmauropelta noveboracensis
- Bushy BluestemAndropogon glomeratus
- Narrowleaf BluestemAndropogon perangustatus
- Devil's-walkingstickAralia spinosa
- Longleaf Three-awnAristida palustris
- Virginia SnakerootAristolochia serpentaria
- Giant CaneArundinaria gigantea
- Switch CaneArundinaria tecta
- Red MilkweedAsclepias rubra
- Common PawpawAsimina triloba
- Small BeggarticksBidens discoidea
- Smallfruit BeggarticksBidens mitis
- Rattlesnake FernBotrychium virginianum
- American BlueheartsBuchnera americana
- Southern BluethreadBurmannia capitata
- Bearded Grass-pinkCalopogon barbatus
- Pale Grass-pinkCalopogon pallidus
- Prickly Bog SedgeCarex atlantica
Wildlife 265
Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Louisiana. Not sighting records.
- American Black DuckAnas rubripes
- Black-crowned Night-heronNycticorax nycticorax
- Boat-tailed GrackleQuiscalus major
- Canada GooseBranta canadensis
- CanvasbackAythya valisineria
- Common NighthawkChordeiles minor
- Great EgretArdea alba
- Great Horned OwlBubo virginianus
- Green HeronButorides virescens
- Least SandpiperCalidris minutilla
- Snowy EgretEgretta thula
- Swamp SparrowMelospiza georgiana
- Tree SwallowTachycineta bicolor
- Yellow-crowned Night-heronNyctanassa violacea
- American PipitAnthus rubescens
- Bald EagleHaliaeetus leucocephalus
- Belted KingfisherMegaceryle alcyon
- Chimney SwiftChaetura pelagica
- Eastern KingbirdTyrannus tyrannus
- Great Blue HeronArdea herodias
- Mottled DuckAnas fulvigula
- OspreyPandion haliaetus
- Purple GallinulePorphyrio martinica
- Ring-necked DuckAythya collaris
NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.
Sources
- USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models (2001)
- USGS GAP winter habitat model for American Coot Slow streams only
- USGS Gap Analysis Project range maps (2001), modeled by watershed; migratory gives no dates
- NatureServe Explorer (CC BY 4.0), habitat names
- US Census TIGER/Line counties
- Names follow the USGS Gap Analysis Project (2001)








































