American and Caribbean Coot

Yes, I am aware that since 2016, the bird that was once known as Caribbean Coot (formerly Fulica caribaea), is no more.  For scientific reasons, it has been merged into one species, called American Coot. To separate them we referred to the once Caribbean Coot as American Coot–Fulica americana (white shielded), this is because of the all-white face shield, and American Coot - Fulica americana (Red-shielded), because of the red the shows to the top of the bird's shield.  Both species are considered rare on our island, but the red shield is the rarer of the two. For most of last year Walker's Reserve, St. Andrew hosted a few of these birds but I only now noticed that the rarer “red shield” was also in the mix.  It provided for a good comparison between these not so long ago separate species of coot.

Here are the example of the two Coots:

American Coot (Red-shielded)

American Coot (white shield) formerly Caribbean Coot