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Bird

American Coot

Fulica americana

A winter visitor to Virginia, found in all 133 counties and cities and 12 habitats.

Here
Winter
Nesting
Not known to nest here
Range
All 133 counties and cities
Habitats
12

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
Winter
Nesting
Not known to nest here
Range
All 133 counties and cities
Habitats
12
Habitat models
Summer, Winter

Where it lives

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

Habitats in Virginia 12

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

1 of 12

Swamps

The Chickahominy Swamp LCCN2004661405
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 SwampWilliam McIlvaine, The Chickahominy Swamp (1862): wind-tossed swamp trees standing in dark water under a storm. Chickahominy Swamp, VirginiaThe Chickahominy Swamp LCCN2004661405, William McIlvaine (1813-1867), 1862. 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

Floodplain and bottomland forests

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

SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Blackwater Stream Floodplain Forest - Forest Modifier; Central Appalachian Riparian - 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 Brownwater Stream Floodplain Forest; South-Central Interior Small Stream and Riparian

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

Pocosins and bay forests

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

SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Peatland Pocosin

Ponds, lakes and their shores

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

SummerWinterOpen Water (Fresh)

Salt and brackish marshes

Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.

WinterAtlantic 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. Shown: North Carolina mountains (Frederic Edwin Church, oil sketch 1865-70; Cooper Hewitt), a neighboring state.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 (34)

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

Elsewhere in the South (26)
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh 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 Small Blackwater River Floodplain Forest Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
  • 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)
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland 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.
  • 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 Virginia

  • Winter: does not nest here, in all 133 counties and cities.

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 356

Plant genera in its diet records (30)
  • Lemna Seeds. 12 diet records. 7 native plants in Virginia
  • Potamogeton Seeds. 10 diet records. 17 native plants in Virginia
  • Myriophyllum Seeds. 9 diet records. 4 native plants in Virginia
  • Scirpus Seeds. 9 diet records. 11 native plants in Virginia
  • Carex Seeds. 6 diet records. 170 native plants in Virginia
  • Cladophora 6 diet records. 0 native plants in Virginia
  • Ruppia Leaves and seeds. 6 diet records. 1 native plant in Virginia
  • Ceratophyllum Seeds and leaves. 5 diet records. 2 native plants in Virginia
  • Chara Leaves. 5 diet records. 0 native plants in Virginia
  • Leptochloa Seeds and leaves. 4 diet records. 0 native plants in Virginia
  • Eleocharis Seeds. 3 diet records. 30 native plants in Virginia
  • Acorus Seeds. 2 diet records. 0 native plants in Virginia
  • Bidens Seeds. 2 diet records. 12 native plants in Virginia
  • Bolboschoenus Seeds. 2 diet records. 3 native plants in Virginia
  • Cuscuta Seeds. 2 diet records. 8 native plants in Virginia
  • Galium Seeds. 2 diet records. 15 native plants in Virginia
  • Morella Seeds. 2 diet records. 4 native plants in Virginia
  • Nitella Other parts. 2 diet records. 0 native plants in Virginia
  • Persicaria Seeds. 2 diet records. 11 native plants in Virginia
  • Salicornia Seeds. 2 diet records. 3 native plants in Virginia
  • Sesuvium Seeds. 2 diet records. 1 native plant in Virginia
  • Sparganium Seeds. 2 diet records. 3 native plants in Virginia
  • Typha 2 diet records. 2 native plants in Virginia
  • Eichhornia 1 diet record. 0 native plants in Virginia
  • Hydrilla 1 diet record. 0 native plants in Virginia
  • Ludwigia 1 diet record. 14 native plants in Virginia
  • Panicum 1 diet record. 7 native plants in Virginia
  • Polygonum Seeds. 1 diet record. 3 native plants in Virginia
  • Ranunculus 1 diet record. 15 native plants in Virginia
  • Sagittaria Seeds. 1 diet record. 13 native plants in Virginia

Avian Diet Database (Hurlbert Lab), CC0 1.0.

Also found in its main habitats

Its main habitats in Virginia, 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 82

Plants 318

All of swamps in Virginia

Coastal dunes and beaches

Birds 108

Plants 109

All of coastal dunes and beaches in Virginia

Coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated)

Birds 83

Plants 37

All of coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated) in Virginia

USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.

Sources