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Alternative name: Andean Coot

Fulica ardesiaca

Bird with white bill
Photo by juninho
Pantanos de Villa, Peru, October 2005

[edit] Identification

16 inches
Slate colour, blackish head and neck, bulging frontal shield, and variable bill and shield colors. Typical form in the south of the range has blood-red shield with yellowish bill, but bill can have other colors. A less common form shows white shield and bill, or less commonly yellow shield and white bill.

[edit] Similar species

American Coot has a darker overall color and flatter shield.

Bird with red shield
Photo by BirdsPeru
Huaraz, Peru July 2001

[edit] Distribution

Andes of Ecuador to northern Argentina and northern Chile.

[edit] Taxonomy

This is a monotypic species^[1]. Some authorities recognize a secondary subspecies, atrura.²

• Formerly lumped within American Coot, F. americana.

[edit] Habitat

Lakes and marshes, sometimes found down to sea level but regularly in Andean high steppe.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2009. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2009. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
2. "atrura" described in Fjeldsa, 1983 Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 103 p.22
3. Alvaro Jaramillo. 2003. Birds of Chile. Princeton Field Guides. ISBN 0-691-11740-3
4. Restall et al. 2006. Birds of Northern South America. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300124156

• List of references

[edit] External Links