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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.

1 of 9

Swamps

The Land of Evangeline
SummerWinterSouthern Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall; East Gulf Coastal Plain Tidal Wooded Swamp; Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plain Swamp Systems; Mississippi River Bottomland DepressionJoseph Rusling Meeker, The Land of Evangeline (1874): moss-hung trees over a still bayou in Louisiana swamp forest. Regional view: the painting does not name the exact site. Louisiana bayou country (Meeker, The Land of Evangeline, 1874)The Land of Evangeline, Joseph Rusling Meeker, 1874. 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 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

Floodplain and bottomland forests

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

SummerWinterMississippi River Low Floodplain (Bottomland) Forest; Mississippi River Floodplain and Riparian Forest

Ponds, lakes and their shores

Still water and its edges: ponds, lakes, millponds and reservoirs.

SummerWinterOpen Water (Fresh)

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.

Hardwood and oak flatwoods

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.

SummerWinterOnly within 250 m of water.Lower Mississippi River Flatwoods
Other habitats in its models (41)

Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Louisiana. Those recorded in Louisiana first, the rest by region.

Elsewhere in the South (27)
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Brownwater Stream Floodplain Forest Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Peatland Pocosin Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Small Blackwater River Floodplain 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 Southern Tidal Wooded Swamp Winter.
  • Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Summer and winter.
  • Central Florida Herbaceous Seep Summer and winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Small Stream and River Floodplain Forest Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Winter.
  • South Florida Bayhead Swamp Summer and winter.
  • South Florida Dwarf Cypress Savanna Summer and winter.
  • South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh Summer and winter.
  • South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Summer and winter.
  • South Florida Mangrove Swamp Winter.
  • South Florida Wet Marl Prairie Summer and winter.
  • South-Central Interior Small Stream and Riparian Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Blackwater River Floodplain Forest Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Hydric Hammock Summer and winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp Summer and winter.
Land cover and other classes (14)
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Blackwater Stream Floodplain Forest - Forest Modifier Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Nonriverine Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest - Oak Dominated Modifier Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • Central Appalachian Riparian - Forest Modifier Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • Central Interior and Appalachian Riparian Systems Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • Central Interior and Appalachian Swamp Systems Summer and winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Herbaceous Modifier Winter, beside its main habitat.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Summer and winter.
  • South-Central Interior Large Floodplain - Forest Modifier Summer and 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.
  • Southern Piedmont/Ridge and Valley Upland Depression Swamp Summer and winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore Summer and winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer and winter.

All habitats

Seasons in Louisiana

  • Year-round: nests here, in 6 of 64 parishes.
  • Winter: does not nest here, in all 64 parishes.

Food plants

Diet records by plant genus, from studies across North America. Not a record from this state. Plants matched by genus.

Native plants in these genera 236

Plant genera in its diet records (30)
  • Lemna Seeds. 12 diet records. 6 native plants in Louisiana
  • Potamogeton Seeds. 10 diet records. 7 native plants in Louisiana
  • Myriophyllum Seeds. 9 diet records. 3 native plants in Louisiana
  • Scirpus Seeds. 9 diet records. 5 native plants in Louisiana
  • Carex Seeds. 6 diet records. 84 native plants in Louisiana
  • Cladophora 6 diet records. 0 native plants in Louisiana
  • Ruppia Leaves and seeds. 6 diet records. 1 native plant in Louisiana
  • Ceratophyllum Seeds and leaves. 5 diet records. 2 native plants in Louisiana
  • Chara Leaves. 5 diet records. 0 native plants in Louisiana
  • Leptochloa Seeds and leaves. 4 diet records. 0 native plants in Louisiana
  • Eleocharis Seeds. 3 diet records. 35 native plants in Louisiana
  • Acorus Seeds. 2 diet records. 0 native plants in Louisiana
  • Bidens Seeds. 2 diet records. 8 native plants in Louisiana
  • Bolboschoenus Seeds. 2 diet records. 1 native plant in Louisiana
  • Cuscuta Seeds. 2 diet records. 4 native plants in Louisiana
  • Galium Seeds. 2 diet records. 12 native plants in Louisiana
  • Morella Seeds. 2 diet records. 3 native plants in Louisiana
  • Nitella Other parts. 2 diet records. 0 native plants in Louisiana
  • Persicaria Seeds. 2 diet records. 10 native plants in Louisiana
  • Salicornia Seeds. 2 diet records. 2 native plants in Louisiana
  • Sesuvium Seeds. 2 diet records. 2 native plants in Louisiana
  • Sparganium Seeds. 2 diet records. 1 native plant in Louisiana
  • Typha 2 diet records. 2 native plants in Louisiana
  • Eichhornia 1 diet record. 0 native plants in Louisiana
  • Hydrilla 1 diet record. 0 native plants in Louisiana
  • Ludwigia 1 diet record. 15 native plants in Louisiana
  • Panicum 1 diet record. 12 native plants in Louisiana
  • Polygonum Seeds. 1 diet record. 2 native plants in Louisiana
  • Ranunculus 1 diet record. 12 native plants in Louisiana
  • Sagittaria Seeds. 1 diet record. 7 native plants in Louisiana

Avian Diet Database (Hurlbert Lab), CC0 1.0.

Also found in its main habitats

Its main habitats in Louisiana, by how much of its habitat model each one is, with the birds most characteristic of each and the plants that grow wild there. Shared habitat, not food.

Swamps

Birds 135

Plants 237

All of swamps in Louisiana

Coastal dunes and beaches

Birds 139

Plants 84

All of coastal dunes and beaches in Louisiana

Coastal Plain seepage bogs

Birds 65

Plants 43

All of coastal plain seepage bogs in Louisiana

USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.

Sources