American Coot (White-shielded) - Rajan Rao
Report

Contributor

Date

Location

Golden Gate Park--Chain of Lakes
San Francisco, California, United States
Media from this location Illustrated Checklist
Map
Map Coordinates: 37.76872, -122.5010347
Age
Not specified
Sex
Not specified

Observation details

Fascinating bird to study. Located with the other American Coots at the beach. This bird had a greatly retracted red-shield giving way to a yellowish base and sparse reddish marks towards the top. As far as I am concerned this is neither a vagrant nor particularly rare. It just happens to be a variant (likely male (Sibley et. al)) in the coot population. Although this is not a "pure" white-shielded bird, I put it as this designation to separated it for study from the slew of other coot reports. A note of personal curiosity: why does eBird have options for some forms but not others? (e.g. "green" Pine Siskin and "bar-breasted" Upland Goose, but not "storm" American Wigeon or "blue" Snow Goose?). Is there a morphological/taxonomical difference, is it for tracking populations, or is it completely random?

Technical information

Model
NIKON D500
Lens
200.0-500.0 mm f/5.6
ISO
400
Focal length
500 mm
Flash
Flash did not fire
f-stop
f/5.6
Shutter speed
1/1000 sec
Dimensions
3308 pixels x 2205 pixels
Original file size
3.42 MB