Status and Breeding of Caribbean Coot in the Netherlands Antilles

Records and observations of breeding waterbirds, rare and uncommon birds, and marked individuals on St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands

“…In these freshwater ponds, coots built their nests on a variety of substrates: dead and live Sesbania sericea, lily pads, wetland grasses, creeping burrhead (Echinodorus berteroi), and a fallen dead branch. Even though a large saline site (Southgate Pond) remains the favored coot breeding location, our confirmation of breeding at a total of 15 small freshwater ponds on St. Croix reinforces the importance of this other site type to coots (also seePrins et al 2005, Nijman 2010). The freshwater sites are a mixture of older farm ponds, golf course ponds, and functional ponds such as small reservoirs and sewage treatment ponds.…”

“…In the early 2000s, focused avifaunal surveys were also conducted on a number of other small to medium-sized islands in the eastern and southern Caribbean: Anegada (McGowan et al 2007); St. Martin (Brown and Collier 2004, 2007, Brown and Brindock 2011; Guadeloupe and dependencies , Levesque and Yésou 2005, Levesque and Saint-Auret 2007, Levesque and Sorenson 2012; Barbados (Buckley et al 2009); the Lesser Antilles (Prins et al 2005); and Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire (Prins et al 2009). Other islands in the eastern and southern Caribbean have received considerably less effort recently, including the northern USVI where year-round decadallength surveys were last conducted by Norton and associates from the late 1970s to the late 1980s (Norton 1979, 1981a, Norton and Hobbs 1987.…”