American coot

On the surface, king and black rails do not appear related, and the duck-like American coot is a rail, too.

Of the 40 species, there were nine species of shorebirds, seven dabbling ducks, five diving ducks, four waders, three gulls, and two "geese" (one was light geese, which includes Snow and Ross' Geese), in addition to Ruddy Duck (Oxyura jamaicensis), American Coot (Fulica americana), White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchus), Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus), Tundra Swan (Cygnus columbianus), Sandhill Crane, Caspian Tern (Hydroprogne caspia), and two species that could not be identified (one dabbling duck and one sandpiper).

PC2001 tended to have significantly higher percent compositions of Fulica americana (Gmelin) (American Coot), Bufflehead, Canada Goose, and Gadwall, while PC2013 tended to have a higher percent composition of Hooded Merganser and Wood Duck.

Status of American Coot Fulica americana (Gruiformes: Rallidae) wintering in Mexico.

With much open water, waterfowl were plentiful: greater white-fronted goose, 1; pink-footed goose, 1 (new species for the count); snow goose, 1; Canada goose, 2,440; mute swan, 14; wood duck CW (seen during count week but not on count day); gadwall cw; American wigeon, 1; American black duck, 55; mallard, 786; northern pintail, 1; green-winged teal, 9; ring-necked duck, 28; greater scaup, 58; lesser scaup, 12 (new high); white-winged scoter, 1; bufflehead, 10; common goldeneye, 106; Barrow's goldeneye, 1; hooded merganser, 355 (new high); common merganser, 96; American coot, 2; wild turkey, 226 (new high); common loon, 9; horned grebe, 4.

The "marsh" birds were well represented in terms of numbers of species present; however, only American Coot was found to be abundant during the cooler months.

There was only one diving herbivore (0.5%), the American Coot, although Fulvous Whistling-Duck, Canvasback, Ringnecked Duck and Redhead probably also used these limited resources.

American Coot (Fulica americana).--Butler (1898) deemed F.

The 2010 totals included 799 wood ducks, 198 mallards, 76 American green winged teal, 21 blue winged teal, 7 black ducks, 2 hooded mergansers, 1 American wigeon, 1 American coot, 6 soras, 2 Virginia rails, 1 pied billed grebe and 44 recaptures.

Hikers may see red-tailed hawks, black-crowned night heron or American coot. Anglers can catch largemouth bass and other freshwater fish.

Taxon Total Percent Pied-billed Grebe 2,023 2.4 American White Pelican 1 <0.1 Cormorants 5,004 6.0 Anhinga 43 0.1 American Bittern 13 <0.1 Least Bittern 5 <0.1 Great Blue Heron 889 1.1 Great Egret 8,328 10.0 Snowy Egret 15,093 18.1 Little Blue Heron 11,167 13.4 Tricolored Heron 661 0.8 Reddish Egret 1 <0.1 Green Heron 89 0.1 Black-crowned Night-Heron 525 0.6 Yellow-crowned Night-Heron 1,406 1.7 White Ibis 8,850 10.6 Dark Ibis 4,492 5.9 Roseate Spoonbill 162 0.2 Wood Stork 175 0.2 Geese 8 <0.1 Ducks 6,514 7.8 Sora 92 0.1 Common Moorhen 4 <0.1 American Coot 10,007 12.0 Shorebirds ** 2,361 2.8 Gulls 2,927 3.5 Terns 1,802 2.2 Belted Kingfisher 243 0.3 * Total number observed was 83,335 birds.