For other waterbird trend pages click a link below:

Shorebird trends

Diving Duck trends

Dabbling Duck trends

Grebe trends

Cormorant trends

Heron & Egret trends

Tern trends

For graphs and profiles click a link below:

Canada Goose
American Coot
Belted Kingfisher


About Graphs

References



Canada Goose
Branta canadensis

Description
A large goose, with a brownish body, long black neck and head, and a conspicuous white cheek patch.  The Canada Goose is now a common bird throughout North America.  The very similar Cackling Goose is smaller, darker, shorter-billed, and found mainly in the West.

Range
Breeds from Alaska across Canada to the central United States. Winters south to northern Mexico and the Gulf Coast.  Canada Geese are now widespread in city parks and on reservoirs.

Diet
Canada Geese are almost exclusively herbivorous; they depend primarily on grasses and sedges.

Natural History Notes
The Canada Goose is the most widely distributed goose in North America.  As a result of changing agricultural practices and global climate change, some migratory populations have shifted their ranges further north.

Some Canadas even nest in city parks and suburbs, as a result of their increasing tolerance of humans. They are especially noticeable in late summer and early fall, when they form molting flocks on golf courses and large lawns; at such times, they have come to be regarded as pests.

Bolinas Lagoon Population Trends
Winter numbers on Bolinas Lagoon have increased sharply since 1998. 


American Coot
Fulica americana

Description
This all black diving bird is one of the most well-known wetland birds and most abundant and wide-spread rails.  Coots have a white, triangular shaped bill with a black tip, a frontal shield, and white undertail coverts.  Coots are clumsy flyers and can be seen splashing water as they run along the surface to take off. 

Range
Coots breed in freshwater marshes in north-central United States and southern and western Canada.  They are year round residents throughout most of the coastal and the western United States and Mexico.  During winter, coots can be found in eastern and southern United States, parts of Mexico, Central America, and along the coast of western Canada.

Diet
The American Coot is an omnivore, eating mostly aquatic vegetation, including algae.  Other food includes fish, tadpoles, crustaceans, snails, worms, aquatic and terrestrial insects, and eggs of other nesting marsh birds.

Natural History Notes
Coots, notoriously known for being conspicuous, gregarious, and aggressive, have 14 different visual displays to communicate to each other.  These displays involve varying postures and movements, displaying the white undertail coverts, and altering swimming speeds and styles.  Sometimes confrontational displays cause aggressive males to engage in combat.  A fight involves one coot lying on its back, grabbing the other bird with its foot, while using the other foot to slap and attempt to push the other bird onto its back. 

American Coots are common residents in the summer and winter at Point Reyes.  In winter, coots can be found on bays, lagoons, estuaries, freshwater marshes, and ponds.  Coots forage over grassy fields and in areas with thick vegetation.  Coots breed in Point Reyes, in freshwater ponds and marshes edged with dense vegetation at Abbott’s Lagoon and Limantour Estero (Stenzel 1989). 

Bolinas Lagoon Population Trends
The American Coot population at Bolinas Lagoon decreased severely after 1976, from over 2000 birds to less than 100 birds in 1979.  Although the number of coots increased to about 700 birds in 1996, the population has since decreased to no coots at all on the Bolinas Lagoon in 2004.  The 1976 decline of birds is a result of drought in their breeding areas (Stenzel 1989).

Belted Kingfisher
Ceryle alcyon


 
Description
Belted Kingfishers have a large dark beak for catching fish, a gray-blue crested head and back, a white collar, and blue band across the belly.  Unlike most birds, females are more colorful than males, with a chestnut band across the belly.

Range
The Belted Kingfisher’s breeding grounds extends from Alaska, across southern Canada and throughout most of the United States.  It winters throughout most of the United States, including along the Pacific Coast.

Diet
Kingfishers eat fish, as well as crayfish, shellfish, squid, small birds, mammals, and reptiles.

Natural History Facts
Kingfishers catch fish by plunging into water from heights of up to 50 feet.  Most fish are caught within two feet of the surface.  Kingfishers beat prey against a hard surface, such as a tree, to immobilize them.  In Point Reyes, kingfishes are found in rivers, lakes, and saltwater estuaries.  

Population Trends on Bolinas Lagoon
The number of Belted Kingfishers on Bolinas Lagoon has decreased from about 8 birds in 1970 to 4 birds in 2004.  The population has remained relatively stable in the past 15 years.