American coot Fulica americana

Identification Tips:

• Length: 12 inches Wingspan: 25 inches
• Fairly large, duck-like waterbird with short wings and a short tail
• Very short, thick bill
• Frequently seen both swimming and walking
• Often flicks and cocks short tail while walking, exposing white outer undertail coverts
• Sexes similar
• Toes have lobed webbing, unlike gallinules

Adult:

• White bill with dark reddish ring just before tip
• White frontal shield with reddish oval near tip
• Slate gray head, neck, back, upperwings, breast and belly

Juvenile:

• Lacks the frontal shield of the adult
• Horn-colored bill may lack ring near tip
• Pale gray-brown head, neck, upperwings, breast and back; feathers on underparts often with paler edges

Similar species:

Common Moorhen is of similar size and shape but has a reddish bill with a yellowish tip, a white stripe along the flanks, and a brownish back.

Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.