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Florida's Birds:
Water & waters edge
Cormorants and Anhingas can be found in the Diving section.
Common Gallinule or Moorhen
13" Common Gallinule or Moorhens as they are more often called make a squawking sound much like coots. Other calls sound like frogs and are harsh in tone. They live in freshwater marshes and ponds with cattails and other aquatic vegetation. Their nests are in shallow platforms of dead cattails, rushes and other marsh plants, built up a few inches above the water level. Males build several nests on the pair's territory which are used by the female and newly hatched young at night.
 Listen to the Gallinule
American Coot
"Coots are the most aquatic members of their family, moving on open water like ducks and often feeding with them. Coots feed in many ways: by diving to the bottom, dabbling at the surface, grazing on land near shore."
 Adult Young
eNature.com
 Watch and hear the American Coot
(46mg. Takes a little over a minute to load on a cable connection)
How Do Birds Get Their Color?
Birds get their color from two methods. One is by pigments, or chemicals in the feathers or skin. Pigments absorb different wavelengths of light and reflect others. The reflected light reach our eyes and the different wavelengths give us the different colors. The shortest wavelengths give us violet and the longest give us reds. A cardinal has pigments that absorb all wavelengths except the longest wavelengths, so we see the bird as red. When no light is reflected we see black, when all light is reflected we see white.
The other method used to get color is by structure of the feather. This is how the blue and iridescent colors are produced. Blue is produced by tiny particles of the feather that are smaller than the wavelength of red light. These particles can affect only the shorter blue wavelengths and reflect the blue light in all directions so they are always seen as blue.
Iridescent colors are made by parts of the feather that are turned so that a flat surface faces the light. The structure is varied and as each flat surface faces the light different colors are reflected. So as the bird moves or the feather moves, the color changes and appears iridescent.
Green Winged Teal
The Green Winged Teal breeds from New York, Nebraska and California north to the Aleutians, northern Alaska, Manitoba and Quebec and winters south to Central America. The North American and Eurasian forms use to be considered different species. Eurasian males have a horizontal white stripe along the side of their bodies instead of a vertical stripe down the breast. Every year some Eurasian "Common Teals" show up in the States which makes us believe they are breeding here. Green Winged Teal are one of the fastest flying ducks.
How Do Birds Float?
For something to float it must be less dense than the water it displaces. Density is how much matter something has. If you have a rock and a bar of soap that are exactly the same size and the rock is heavier then the rock has more matter stuffed into the same amount of space than the bar of soap has. If you put the rock and the bar of soap in water, they both fill the same amount of space in the water. If that 'water space' is more dense than the rock or soap, the rock and soap will float. Usually the rock will be more dense than the water it displaces so it will sink.
Birds have several adaptations that help them be less dense than the water they displace when they float. The things that help a bird float are also the things that help them fly. One important adaptation birds have is that their bones are hollow. Another is that they have little sacks in their bodies that act like balloons. These balloons fill more space but are less dense. Air caught in their feathers also make them fill more space with less matter, that is, make them less dense. If water gets on their feathers the feathers can't trap the air any more. They become more dense. It's much more difficult for them to fly or float. So birds are always cleaning, preening and oiling their feathers with oil from glands.
Mottled Duck
Mottled ducks are found only in North American and are year-round residents. They are found in freshwater wetlands, wet prairies and flodded marshes. They stay in the same area year-round. Mottled ducks breed once a year and most are paired up by November. Their young hatch in February. Mottled ducks eat aquatic invertebrates and small fish, snails, crayfish, beetles, dragonfly nymphs, fish, seeds, grasses, and aquatic vegetation. They rarely dive for food but when they do, it is for minnows.
Animal Diversity Web
www.wildflorida.org
The Florida Fish & Wildlife conservation Commission's site on Mottled Ducks states:
The Florida mottled duck is one of a few non-migratory ducks in North America. It occurs only in peninsular Florida where it is found both on the coasts and inland. Introduced mallards are interbreeding with our native Florida Mottled ducks resulting in hybrids of the two species. The potential consequence is the loss of the mottled duck as a distinct species in Florida. Historically, mallards occurred in Florida only as winter migrants. However, there are now mallards in Florida year-round. These new residents were put here, mostly by private citizens who purchased domesticated mallards and released them on local ponds, lakes, and canals to enjoy watching them. and are reproducing in the wild with our Florida ducks. The result is that fewer and fewer pure-bred Florida ducks are left. Unfortunately, these birds have become feral and are reproducing in the wild with our Florida ducks. The result is that fewer and fewer pure-bred Florida ducks are left.
What can you do to help prevent the extinction of the Florida Mottled duck?
Do not release mallards, and do not support existing feral mallards by feeding or sheltering them. Tell friends and neighbors not to release or support Mallard ducks.
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But how can you tell if the mallard duck is feral or naturaly occuring?
In Florida, wild mallards are protected and can not be touched unless you have special permits. But natural mallards are migratory. If the mallard you are watching is here in the summer, it's a feral duck. These birds can be removed by Department of Agriculture- Wildlife Services officials who have the proper permits. And if you would like additional information about the feral mallard hybridization problem, please call 321-726-2862.
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The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
Hold still for the camera!
That's good!
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Ok, you can relax now.
Scratch if you have to.
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Black-Bellied Whistling Duck
Duck Central compares the Black-Bellied Whistling Duck and the Fulvous Whistling Duck. This site tells us these ducks are slow flying and that the legs of both show behind the bird while flying. They look very much alike but one main feature is that the Fulvous has a black beak and the Black-Bellied has a bright pink beak. This site also says that the Fulvous are primarily Mexican and are found primarily in south Texas, Louisiana and Florida with occasional stragglers further north along both coasts and the Mississippi Valley. They add that the black-bellied is also primarily Mexican and that it is found only in south Texas and Louisiana in the US. Now, unless these are Fulvous Ducks that painted their beaks red then we'll have to amend their comment to include finding Black-Bellied Whistling Ducks in south Florida.
(Yes, Duck Central is a hunting website. Hunting can be an important population control method. Maybe we should put the Eurasian Collared-Dove on the hunting list. Hunting sites are a good resource for identification. Hunters must be absolutely sure of their birds!)
Pied-Billed Grebe
This smallish duck eats small fish, crustaceans, and aquatic insects but is especially fond of crayfish, which it crushes easily with its stout bill. When alarmed, this grebe often sinks slowly into the water, resurfacing out of sight among the reeds. But it can also dive with amazing speed, a habit that has earned it the nickname "Hell-diver." It is also called the "Dabchick" in some areas. It is the most common nesting grebe in the East.
Watch a Grebe dive and eat.
(43mg. Takes a bit over a minute to load on a cable connection)
Northern Shoveler
Animal Diversity Web states that "Northern Shovelers (Anas clypeata) has a very broad geographical range. They breed throughout Eurasia and western North America. They are also found in the Great Lakes region of the eastern United States. In winter various populations migrate south to specific locations, scattered throughout north-east Africa, India, Southern China and Japan to Mexico and southern North America. The most distinctive feature is their large spatulate bill. It is twice as wide at the tip than it is at the base. This uniquely shaped bill gives rise to Northern Shovelers also being called "spoonbills". The ducklings hatch with a typical duckbill that enlarges as the duckling matures. A Northern Shoveler feeds mainly by drawing water into its bill and then pumping it out through the sides with their tongue, filtering out minute food particles with long comb-like lamellae that line the edge of the bill. The particles mainly consist of tiny crustaceans, molluscs, insects, and their larvae as well as seeds and pieces of leaves and stems of plants. In addition to the food particles they also eat water beetles, small minnows, and snails."
All photos, including birds and other wildlife photography © by Gilbert Henry
Return to the main Bird page.
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Gill Henry
