American Coot

Fulica americana
STANFORD LOCATIONS:

Fairly common winter visitor at Lagunita. Birds lingering into spring and may occasionally nest here.
  
Nest
Location
Nest
Type
Eggs&
Mating System
Dev. &
Parental Care
Primary&
2ndary Diet
Foraging
Strategy
MF
I: 21-25 DAYS
PRECOCIAL 4
(To 2 feet)
MF
8-12
(2-12)
MONOG?
F: 49-56(?) DAYS
MF
GROUND GLEAN
 FOLIAGE GLEAN
BREEDING: Freshwater lakes, ponds, marshes, rivers. Usu 1 brood, occ2.
DISPLAYS: Male paddles after female, flapping wings; female dives if too closely pressed. Male paddles with head and neck on water, wingtips raised above, spreads and elevates tail to display white patches. Female assumes similar pose.
NEST: Usu over water (1 '- 4' deep), in veg tall enough to conceal; large floating cup of dead stems on platform anchored to veg, lined with finer materials. Other platforms for resting/roosting, esp brood platform built mostly by male.
EGGS: Pinkish-buff, marked with blackish-brown. 1.9" (49 mm).
DIET: Mostly aquatic veg, algae; also fish, tadpoles, crustaceans, snails, worms, aquatic and terrestrial insects, eggs of other marsh-nesting birds. Pirates plants from ducks.
CONSERVATION: Winters s to s C.A. Golf course and gun club pest.
NOTES: Clutch overlap occurs during seasons when breeding starts early enough for 2 broods. Younger birds tend to nest later than older birds; later clutches smaller. Brood parasitism: clutches >12 likely from >1 female. Young hatch asynchronously.
ESSAYS: American Coots; Piracy; Feet; Vocal Development; Variation in Clutch Sizes; Commensal Feeding.
REFERENCES: Gorenzel et al., 1982; Hill, 1986; Ryan and Dinsmore, 1979, 1980.

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Except for Stanford Locations, the material in this species treatment is taken, with permission, from The Birder's Handbook (Paul Ehrlich, David Dobkin, & Darryl Wheye, Simon & Schuster, NY. 1988).