Talk:American coot/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Tianyi Cai (Tianyi Cai|talk · contribs) 23:36, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

Hello! Sorry for the wait. Here is my review.

• As MeegsC said, this article can enjoy a longer intro, summarizing the main points of the entry.
• Also, a taxonomy section is needed to discuss the particular family and any close relatives American coots may have.
• Thirdly, add a conservation and status section where the current situation of the species and any threat it is facing should be discussed.
• Moreover,The article needs more articles. I see a couple of pictures on Flickr.com.

Description

• Are the second and third paragraphs referred to the citations [2][3][4] as well? If not, please clarify the precise citations. If yes, then cite the related reference at the end of each paragraph.
• About the content, is there any difference between adult male and female appearances? What about juveniles?
• I added some Wikilinking to the "food and feeding" section. Make sure to link any obscure or special term to a Wiki page if available. This applies to every section in the entry.
• You can also add lifespan information here.

Behavior

• When is the breeding season?
• Most part is unsourced in "Nest". Need more citations.
• Overall very informative. Well-written!
• Is it known what are some of the species that parasitize the American coot?
• In "brood parasitism", it says that three bird species have evolved chick recognition. What are the other two species besides the American coot?

Predation

• Check the grammar here (singular and plural verbs).

Fossil record

• I think the information here can be placed in the taxonomy section that is usually at the very beginning of the article, because it talks about phylogeny of the species.

Footnotes

• This section should be named "References".

Hi. Glad to see another bird article headed for review! Just a few overall comments from MeegsC (talk · contribs):

• The lead needs to be much longer. It should be a summary of the article. See Wikipedia's Manual of Style for more information.
• There should be a section on conservation. What's its status? Any threats, such as habitat destruction? Population increasing or decreasing?
• Given the size of the article, there's no reason to squeeze text between pictures and taxobox. Move the pictures.
• Get rid of all contractions (e.g. "it's" rather than "it is"). They shouldn't appear in formal writing, per WP:MOS.
• Every paragraph should be referenced. There are a fair few that aren't.
• Check the validity of that range map against some external sources. American Coots overwinter on much of the east coast, (certainly as far north as NJ) and potentially elsewhere as well

I'll let Tianyi post a more complete review before commenting further; this should help get you started! MeegsC (talk) 14:15, 28 November 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the tips MeegsC! I made the edits you suggested. I took a look a second look at the range map and the Handbook of the Birds of the World corroborated what is currently displayed on the page. I'll see if I can find some more primary source articles detailing the range map. Do you have any suggestions as to what else could go in the lead? I added a little about the unique behavior of Coots but am unsure where to go from there. Thanks again for the time you've spent looking over my article! Katheefwah (talk) 21:49, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

Thanks Lily for the tips! They were really insightful. I tried my best to make the edits you suggested. Let me know if there is anything else that needs to be improved or added. I really appreciate the time you've been taking to review my article! Katheefwah (talk) 21:52, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

Further comments from MeegsC

Hi Katheefwah — glad to see you've followed up on the suggestions. Sorry I didn't respond sooner; I forgot to watchlist the page. A couple of additional comments:

• The lead should include things like a brief description of the bird, a comment about its status (i.e. least concern), what it eats, where it lives, the basics of its breeding (i.e. where does it build its nest, how many chicks, how long in the nest, etc.), whether it's a pest species, etc.
• There are bare urls in the reference section. These should be converted to standard citations. Try the wp:cite page for more info. Or just use the citation assistant at the top of the edit box!
• Other than in the taxonomy section, don't use the scientific name to refer to the bird.
• Those new photos need some real captions. "Fulica americana3" won't do.
• This is a far better range map. Not sure why the HBW map is so wrong; perhaps they used the wrong color - green instead of blue!
• There are still many paragraphs with no terminal citation.
• Are there two or three subspecies? One sentence says one thing, and the very next sentence seems to contradict this — with no explanation as to the discrepancy.
• There's a reference to "Jehl" in the taxonomy section, with no details at all in the references. Is this a book? A journal article? It needs expanding!
• Actually, the whole references section could use a good going over. There's also a unexpanded reference to "Olson", and some of the others are missing bits (i.e. publisher location in HBW -- where del Hoyo is also credited as the writer rather than the publisher, publishers for a couple of the urls, there's a "1996b" for an author that doesn't have a 1996a, etc.). And all book references should have page numbers.

MeegsC (talk) 03:58, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

New comment

The article seems to have stalled: there have been only a few edits since MeegsC made a bunch on December 13, and it's been three weeks since there's been any activity at all on this page. Given the lack of progress and the issues outstanding, it may be time to close the review. BlueMoonset (talk) 02:13, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

Failing per the above. Wizardman 23:49, 13 January 2013 (UTC)

Finishing GA recommendations

I intend to help push this article up to GA. I made a few edits yesterday, particularly by filling in the blanks in the references section and adding to the intro. If any of the original reviewers are still monitoring the page I'd appreciate some feedback. Thanks! Gabriel.hassler (talk) 19:57, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Hi Gabriel: Just back from Mexico; will take a look in the next day or two. MeegsC (talk) 21:02, 28 January 2013 (UTC)