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Common Moorhen

Common Moorhen

Gallinula chloropus

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The Common Moorhen is a familiar rail found across much of Europe, Africa and Asia around well-vegetated ponds, canals, marshes and park lakes. Adults are easily recognised by their dark body, white flank line and undertail, and red bill with a yellow tip below a red frontal shield. It swims confidently, walks on floating vegetation and often flicks its tail to show the white undertail.

Did you know?

  • When danger looms, downy chicks may cling to a parent as it flies off, carrying them to safety.
  • Its long toes spread its weight, letting it walk on lily pads and other floating plants.

Voice

Call
Flight call
Alarm call

About the species

Identification

Adults have dark plumage, a brownish back, white undertail and a clear pale line along the flanks; the bill is red with a yellow tip, the frontal shield red and the legs greenish. Young birds are browner with a greenish bill and shield. The red bill and white flank line separate it from Coot, which has a white bill and shield and more uniform dark grey plumage.

Family

Rallidae

Size

Large (crow)

Colours

black, brown, red, white, yellow

About the habitat

Freshwater wetlands with dense emergent vegetation – reedbeds, pond and lake margins, marshy ditches, canals and slow rivers; also park lakes and urban wetlands.

Diet

Omnivorous: aquatic plants, seeds, shoots and algae, as well as insects, snails, worms, small crustaceans, tadpoles and small fish. It picks food along the water's edge and on floating vegetation, sometimes upending in shallow water.

Behaviour

Often skulking but also seen in open water, swimming with a jerky head-bob and flicking its tail. Territorial when breeding, even towards ducks; it gives sharp clucks and gurgling calls and hisses when threatened. It builds a basket-like nest in dense vegetation; both parents incubate and raise the young, and older offspring sometimes help feed a later brood. Birds from freezing areas move to milder regions in winter.

Sources

Photo: Alexis Lours, CC BY 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Common moorhen (Gallinula chloropus) France.jpg

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC919424, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/919424

Sound: Joost van Bruggen, XC436938, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/436938

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC919286, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/919286

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_moorhen

See also