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Bird

American Coot

Fulica americana

A winter visitor to North Carolina, found in all 100 counties and 13 habitats.

Here
Winter
Nesting
Not known to nest here
Range
All 100 counties
Habitats
13

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
Winter
Nesting
Not known to nest here
Range
All 100 counties
Habitats
13
Habitat models
Summer, Winter

Where it lives

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

Habitats in North Carolina 13

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

1 of 13

Floodplain and bottomland forests

fallen (uprooted) tree
SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Blackwater Stream Floodplain Forest - Forest Modifier; South-Central Interior Large Floodplain - Forest Modifier; Central Interior and Appalachian Riparian Systems; Atlantic Coastal Plain Small Brownwater River Floodplain Forest; Atlantic Coastal Plain Small Blackwater River Floodplain Forest; Atlantic Coastal Plain Brownwater Stream Floodplain Forest; South-Central Interior Small Stream and RiparianNamed place / source context. Shown: Congaree Swamp National Monument floodplain forest, South Carolina; representative illustration, no exact viewpoint, a neighboring state.fallen (uprooted) tree, John Dawson, by1988. 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

View, Dismal Swamp, North Carolina
SummerWinterCentral Interior and Appalachian Swamp Systems; Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plain Swamp Systems; Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Tidal Wooded Swamp; Southern Piedmont/Ridge and Valley Upland Depression SwampNamed place / source context. Great Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, as titled by Museum of Fine Arts Boston; nineteenth-century artistic interpretationView, Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, Regis Francois Gignoux, 1850. 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 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.

SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland

Freshwater tidal marshes

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

SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh

Pocosins and bay forests

Dense evergreen shrub wetlands and bay forests on wet, acid peat of the Coastal Plain.

SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Peatland Pocosin

Salt and brackish marshes

Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.

WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish 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)

Streams, rivers and their banks

Drawing, Autumn Landscape in North Carolina, 1865–70
SummerWinterBeside its main habitat.Central Interior and Appalachian Riparian Systems; South-Central Interior Small Stream and RiparianFrederic Edwin Church, Autumn Landscape in North Carolina (1865-70): a boulder-strewn mountain river under autumn-coloured ridges. Regional view: the painting does not name the exact site. North Carolina mountains (Frederic Edwin Church, oil sketch 1865-70; Cooper Hewitt)Drawing, Autumn Landscape in North Carolina, 1865–70, Frederic Edwin Church, 1865-1870. Public domain. Source record.

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.

SummerWinterBeside its main habitat.Atlantic Coastal Plain Nonriverine Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest - Oak Dominated Modifier
Other habitats in its models (31)

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

Elsewhere in the South (23)
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh 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.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Tidal Wooded Swamp Winter.
  • 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.
  • Lower Mississippi River Flatwoods Summer and winter, only within 250 m of water.
  • Mississippi River Bottomland Depression Summer and winter.
  • Mississippi River Low Floodplain (Bottomland) Forest Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • 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.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Blackwater River Floodplain Forest Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Herbaceous Seepage Bog Summer and winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Hydric Hammock Summer and winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp Summer and winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall Summer and winter.
Land cover and other classes (8)
  • Central Appalachian Riparian - Forest Modifier Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • 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.
  • Mississippi River Floodplain and Riparian Forest 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.
  • Unconsolidated Shore Summer and winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer and winter.

All habitats

Seasons in North Carolina

  • Winter: does not nest here, in all 100 counties.

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 324

Plant genera in its diet records (30)
  • Lemna Seeds. 12 diet records. 7 native plants in North Carolina
  • Potamogeton Seeds. 10 diet records. 11 native plants in North Carolina
  • Myriophyllum Seeds. 9 diet records. 4 native plants in North Carolina
  • Scirpus Seeds. 9 diet records. 10 native plants in North Carolina
  • Carex Seeds. 6 diet records. 148 native plants in North Carolina
  • Cladophora 6 diet records. 0 native plants in North Carolina
  • Ruppia Leaves and seeds. 6 diet records. 1 native plant in North Carolina
  • Ceratophyllum Seeds and leaves. 5 diet records. 3 native plants in North Carolina
  • Chara Leaves. 5 diet records. 0 native plants in North Carolina
  • Leptochloa Seeds and leaves. 4 diet records. 0 native plants in North Carolina
  • Eleocharis Seeds. 3 diet records. 28 native plants in North Carolina
  • Acorus Seeds. 2 diet records. 0 native plants in North Carolina
  • Bidens Seeds. 2 diet records. 11 native plants in North Carolina
  • Bolboschoenus Seeds. 2 diet records. 2 native plants in North Carolina
  • Cuscuta Seeds. 2 diet records. 6 native plants in North Carolina
  • Galium Seeds. 2 diet records. 11 native plants in North Carolina
  • Morella Seeds. 2 diet records. 3 native plants in North Carolina
  • Nitella Other parts. 2 diet records. 0 native plants in North Carolina
  • Persicaria Seeds. 2 diet records. 13 native plants in North Carolina
  • Salicornia Seeds. 2 diet records. 3 native plants in North Carolina
  • Sesuvium Seeds. 2 diet records. 2 native plants in North Carolina
  • Sparganium Seeds. 2 diet records. 2 native plants in North Carolina
  • Typha 2 diet records. 3 native plants in North Carolina
  • Eichhornia 1 diet record. 0 native plants in North Carolina
  • Hydrilla 1 diet record. 0 native plants in North Carolina
  • Ludwigia 1 diet record. 20 native plants in North Carolina
  • Panicum 1 diet record. 5 native plants in North Carolina
  • Polygonum Seeds. 1 diet record. 5 native plants in North Carolina
  • Ranunculus 1 diet record. 13 native plants in North Carolina
  • Sagittaria Seeds. 1 diet record. 13 native plants in North Carolina

Avian Diet Database (Hurlbert Lab), CC0 1.0.

Also found in this habitat

Plants 531

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

Wildlife 254

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

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

Sources