Common Moorhen

Gallinula chloropus

Order GRUIFORMES - Family RALLIDAE

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

The most widely distributed member of the rail family, the Common Moorhen inhabits marshes and ponds from Canada to Chile, from northern Europe to southern Africa, and across Asia to the Pacific. Vocal and boldly marked, the species can be quite conspicuous, sometimes using its long toes to walk atop floating vegetation.

Cool Facts

• The Common Moorhen has long toes that makes it possible to walk on soft mud and floating vegetation. The toes have no lobes or webbing to help in swimming, but the moorhen is a good swimmer anyway.

• The Common Moorhen sometimes lifts its feet out of the water in front of the body while swimming, perhaps to pass over vegetation.

• Newly hatched chicks of the Common Moorhen have spurs on their wings that help them climb into the nest or grab emergent vegetation.

• Twelve subspecies of Common Gallinule are recognized from around the world, most differing only in size or brightness of plumage. One subspecies is found only in the Hawaiian Islands and has been known as the Hawaiian Gallinule.

Description

• Size: 32-35 cm (13-14 in)
• Wingspan: 54-62 cm (21-24 in)
• Weight: 310-456 g (10.94-16.1 ounces)

• Dark, with white flank stripe.
• Red bill and forehead.
• Swims on surface of water like a duck.
• Bill triangular like a chicken's, not flat like a duck's.
• White stripe on sides of undertail.

Breeding (Alternate) Plumage: Mostly blackish body, brown wings, and white flank stripe. Undertail white with a black line in middle. Forehead shield and bill bright red; bill with yellow tip. Legs olive-yellow. Ring of scarlet just below thigh feathers.
Nonbreeding (Basic) Plumage: Chin, throat, and underparts paler than on breeding adult. Bill and forehead shield dusky red.

Sex Differences

Sexes similar, male slightly larger.

Immature

Juvenile brownish-gray with drab maroon bill and no frontal shield.

Similar Species

• Adult Purple Gallinule has blue body plumage, green wings, and a blue frontal shield, and lacks white flank stripe. Juvenile Purple Gallinule has tawny neck and head, mostly white underparts, and greenish wings. Purple Gallinule lacks black line down the middle of the undertail coverts.
• American Coot is stockier, has white bill, unmarked flanks, and mostly dark undertail coverts.

Sound

A highly varied repertoire of calls, including clucks, whinnies, cackles, squawks, and yelps.

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds in appropriate habitat scattered throughout the United States, from southern Minnesota through the Great Lakes region to the Atlantic Coast, southward through the Mississippi River basin to the Gulf Coast, and locally in the western states, including the California coast and Central Valley, the Salton Sea, and the Colorado River. Also in much of Mexico, South America, Europe, and Asia, as well as islands in the Caribbean and the Pacific.

Winter Range

Resident in West, along Gulf Coast, and southern Atlantic Coast. Moorhens breeding in the north Atlantic and Midwestern states winter from North Carolina to Texas, and possibly southward to Central and South America.

Habitat

Freshwater or brackish marshes with tall emergent vegetation, ponds, canals, and rice fields.

Food

Seeds of grasses and sedges, and some snails.

Behavior

Foraging

Picks food from water surface or from emergent plants while walking or swimming. Dips head, dabbles, and occasionally dives. Flips floating leaves to take snails clinging to undersides.

Reproduction

Nest Type

A wide bowl of grasses and sedges, usually taken from near the nest site. Most commonly anchored to emergent vegetation within a meter of water.

Egg Description

Gray or buff with variable speckles and splotches.

Clutch Size

3-15 eggs.

Condition at Hatching

Eyes open; covered with gray down except on head and wings.

Conservation Status

Listed as threatened or as a species of special concern in several Midwestern and Northeastern states because of loss of wetland habitat, predation by introduced mammals, and other factors.

Other Names

Gallinule poule-d'eau, Poule d'eau (French)
Pollo de agua, Gallareta frentirroja, Pollona negra (Spanish)
Common Gallinule, Florida Gallinule (English)

Sources used to construct this page:

Bannor, B. K., and E. Kiviat. 2002. Common Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus). In The Birds of North America, No. 685 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.