Mindy and Scott Johnson discovered an injured bird in their backyard and could not identify what kind of bird it was.  They sent pictures of the bird to this website and we were able to identify the bird from the Peterson Field Guide.

It is an American Coot which is a duck-like swimmer about 13 inches in length.  They run in order to take off into flight.  Flight is labored and the big feet trail beyond the short tail.  Its habitat is ponds, lakes, and marshes.  In the winter, they frequent fields and park ponds.  Their range is from Canada to Ecuador.  They are basically secretive wading birds and spend most of their time swimming. 

A happy ending came to this story as the Johnson's contacted a wildlife expert who advised them to take the bird to a pond and let it go and it should fly away.  So the Johnson's trapped the bird and took him to a local pond where the bird managed to work up enough steam to fly away.  It appears that the bird needs to be in water to take off.  Below are pictures of Scott Johnson with his three sons Elliott, Ethan, and Ejay getting ready to turn the bird loose into the water and the American Coot in the water before it flew away.