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

Adult American Coot, whole bird — **Adult**. (c) Marcel_Pepin, some rights reserved (CC BY). CC BY. iNaturalist photo 363880223. iNaturalist large derivative; no local crop or retouch.

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

SummerWinterUnconsolidated Shore (Beach/Dune); Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain Interdunal WetlandDune grassland. Shown: Core Banks, Cape Lookout, North Carolina, a neighboring state.Core Banks dunes, June 2013, Jarek Tuszyński, June 2013. CC BY-SA 3.0. Source record.

SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Peatland PocosinDense low pocosin. Shown: Shaken Creek Preserve, Pender and Onslow Counties, North Carolina, a neighboring state.Dense low pocosin, Robert Thornhill, undated. CC BY 4.0. Source record.

SummerWinterOpen Water (Fresh)Regional / representative. Shown: Southern coastal pond margins, Florida and Louisiana to North Carolina; state not identified, a neighboring state.Yellow butterwort beside a moss-hung coastal pond, Marian Ellis Rowan, 1901. Public domain. Source record.

WinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish MarshBrackish marsh at a woodland edge. Shown: Fort Fisher, North Carolina, a neighboring state.Fort Fisher brackish marsh and woodland edge, ncwetlands.org, undated. CC0 1.0. Source record.

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. Shown: Great Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, as titled by Museum of Fine Arts Boston; nineteenth-century artistic interpretation, a neighboring state.View, Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, Regis Francois Gignoux, 1850. Public domain. Source record.

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

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)

SummerWinterBeside its main habitat.Central Interior and Appalachian Riparian Systems; South-Central Interior Small Stream and RiparianNamed place / source context. Shown: Watauga Falls, North Carolina, a neighboring state.Watauga Falls, Illustrator/engraver not confidently attributed; reproduced in Zeigler and Grosscup, The Heart of the Alleghanies (1883), 1883. 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.

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.
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.
Southern Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall Summer and winter.
East Gulf Coastal Plain Tidal Wooded Swamp Winter.
South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh Summer and winter.
Floridian Highlands 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.
Southern Coastal Plain Herbaceous Seepage Bog Summer and winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
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.
Mississippi River Bottomland Depression Summer and winter.
South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Summer and winter.
East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Herbaceous Modifier Winter, beside its main habitat.
Mississippi River Low Floodplain (Bottomland) Forest Summer and winter, beside its main habitat.
Southern Coastal Plain Hydric Hammock Summer and winter.
Atlantic Coastal Plain Small Blackwater River Floodplain Forest 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.
Mississippi River Floodplain and Riparian Forest Summer and winter.
Lower Mississippi River Flatwoods Summer and winter, only within 250 m of water.