The red-gartered coot (''Fulica armillata'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in subfamily Rallinae of family

Rallidae The rails, or Rallidae, are a large cosmopolitan family of small- to medium-sized, ground-living birds. The family exhibits considerable diversity and includes the crakes, coots, and gallinules. Many species are associated with wetlands, althoug ...

, the rails, gallinules, and coots. It is found in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

, and

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

.HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 6. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v6_Dec21.zip retrieved August 7, 2022Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 24 July 2022. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved July 24, 2022

Taxonomy and systematics

The red-gartered coot is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

Description

The red-gartered coot is long. The sexes are alike. Adults have a yellow bill and frontal shield with a patch of red between them. (The bill is sometimes reddish.) Their legs are orange-yellow to yellow with a pale red "garter" above the ankle. Their plumage is slaty gray that is blacker on the head and neck. Their undertail

coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which, as the name implies, cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are sm ...

are white. Immature birds have a paler bill than adults and olive legs and feet. Juveniles are drab gray-brown with dusky mottling on a white head and neck.Taylor, B. (2020). Red-gartered Coot (''Fulica armillata''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.regcoo1.01 retrieved November 24, 2022

Distribution and habitat

The red-gartered coot is found from central and southern Chile, Paraguay, and southeastern Brazil south through Argentina to

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of the Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla G ...

. It has reached the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouzet ...

as a

vagrant Vagrancy is the condition of homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants (also known as bums, vagabonds, rogues, tramps or drifters) usually live in poverty and support themselves by begging, scavenging, petty theft, temporar ...

, and sight records in

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

lead the South American Classification Committee of the

American Ornithological Society The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its m ...

to classify it as hypothetical in that country.

Fossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...

of this species are known from the Laguna de Tagua Tagua formation of Chile. The red-gartered coot inhabits large ponds, lakes, rivers, and marshes, and in winter sheltered marine bays. It is generally a bird of the lowlands but occurs up to about in

Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and gl ...

, to in the southern Andes, and as high as in northwestern Argentina.

Behavior

Movement

The red-gartered coot is believed to be mostly sedentary but does make some local movements and has strayed from its normal range.

Feeding

The red-gartered coot feeds primarily on aquatic plants, mostly by diving in open water but also upends like a duck in shallower water. It also grazes on land near water.

Breeding

The red-gartered coot's breeding season varies geographically, but is generally within September to November. It is monogamous and when breeding it is aggressive and territorial, though outside that season it is gregarious. It builds a loose platform nest of dried rushes with a rim, usually attached to rushes but sometimes floating. The clutch size is two to eight eggs; both parents incubate the eggs and care for the young.

Vocalization

Male red-gartered coots make a "whistled 'huit'" alarm call, in aggression "an explosive 'pit' and repeated 'wuw'", and when near a female a "repeated soft 'cuit'". The female's alarm call is "yec" and it also makes a "loud, repeated 'terr'."

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has assessed the red-gartered coot as being of Least Concern, though its population size and trend are not known. No immediate threats have been identified. It is considered common.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1267239

red-gartered coot The red-gartered coot (''Fulica armillata'') is a species of bird in subfamily Rallinae of family Rallidae, the rails, gallinules, and coots. It is found in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.HBW and BirdLife International (2021) H ...

Birds of Chile Birds of Argentina Birds of Uruguay Birds of the South Region

Taxa named by Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot Taxonomy articles created by Polbot