Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 03:07:43 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Phil Davis Subject: Re: Variant coot at Hughes Hollow In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Hi Jim, et al. From an ornithological standpoint, this sighting should probably be documented, if possible. Here's a good web site on the differences between American (Fulica americana) and Caribbean Coot (F. caribaea) ... http://www.geocities.com/secaribbirds/idamericancaribbeancoot.html I would suggest that anyone who sees this bird try to determine the scoring category for the shield type of this bird. Photos and sketches would be especially welcome. There is disagreement among ornithologists as to whether the Caribbean Coot occurs at all in the US. David Sibley says Caribbean does not occur in North America, whereas Herbert Raffaele (A Guide to the Birds of the West Indies) says they do reach the southeastern tip of the US. The AOU (in the 7th edition of their checklist) says, "reports from southern Florida, primarily in the non-breeding season, and locally at scattered locations throughout the US, apparently pertain to variants of F. americana ... The relationship between F. americana and F. caribaea are not fully understood; the later may eventually prove to be a morph or F. americana." I think it's fair to say the jury is still out on this question and we should probably not pass up an opportunity to document one of these birds so we can learn more about their frequency and distribution. The MD/DC Records Committee may not review this sighting report, at least not at this time, but may hold any reports until more work is done on the taxonomic issues. Interestingly, there is previous report of a Caribbean Coot from Hughes Hollow on May 11, 1984. This report was not accepted as a state record, but as I recall, this was another case of the "Caribbean Coot or variant American Coot" question. As always, a set of documentation guidelines/outline can be found on the MD/DCRC web pages at the URL in my signature block. Thanks. Phil At 17:12 03/14/2004 -0500, Jim Boughton wrote: >On Saturday 3/13 at Hughes Hollow, around 4:30 pm, there was a coot >with no red facial marking and a quite large white facial shield. It >looked very much like the "variant" coot illustrated in the Sibley and >NG guides. =================================================== Phil Davis, Secretary MD/DC Records Committee 2549 Vale Court Davidsonville, Maryland 21035 USA 301-261-0184 mailto:PDavis@ix.netcom.com MD/DCRC Web site: http://www.MDBirds.org/mddcrc/rcindex.html =================================================== ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================