PLEASE! If you see any mistakes, I'm 100% sure that I have wrongly identified some birds.
So please let me know on my guestbook at the bottom of the page
Common Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus, Rörhöna, นกอีล้ำ

The Common Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus) (also known as the waterhen and as the swamp chicken) is a bird species in the family Rallidae. It is distributed across many parts of the Old World.

The Common Moorhen lives around well-vegetated marshes, ponds, canals and other wetlands. The species is not found in the polar regions or many tropical rainforests. Elsewhere it is likely the most common rail species, except for the Eurasian coot in some regions.

The closely related common gallinule of the New World has been recognized as a separate species by most authorities, starting with the American Ornithologists' Union and the International Ornithological Committee in 2011.

Habitat
This is a common breeding bird in marsh environments, well-vegetated lakes and even in city parks. Populations in areas where the waters freeze, such as eastern Europe, will migrate to more temperate climes.



Common Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus, Rörhöna, นกอีล้ำ

Range map from Ornithological Portal Oiseaux.net
Range map from www.oiseaux.net - Ornithological Portal Oiseaux.net
www.oiseaux.net is one of those MUST visit pages if you're in to bird watching. You can find just about everything there

Name
The name mor-hen has been recorded in English since the 13th century. The word moor here is an old sense meaning marsh; the species is not usually found in moorland. An older name, common waterhen, is more descriptive of the bird's habitat.

A "watercock" is not a male "waterhen" but the rail species Gallicrex cinerea, not closely related to the Common Moorhen. "Water rail" usually refers to Rallus aquaticus, again not closely related.

The scientific name Gallinula chloropus comes from the Latin Gallinula (a small hen or chicken) and the Greek chloropus (khloros χλωρός green or yellow, pous πούς foot).

Description
The moorhen is a distinctive species, with dark plumage apart from the white undertail, yellow legs and a red frontal shield. The young are browner and lack the red shield. The frontal shield of the adult has a rounded top and fairly parallel sides; the tailward margin of the red unfeathered area is a smooth waving line.

In the related common gallinule of the Americas, the frontal shield has a fairly straight top and is less wide towards the bill, giving a marked indentation to the back margin of the red area.

The Common Moorhen gives a wide range of gargling calls and will emit loud hisses when threatened. A midsized to large rail, it can range from 30 to 38 cm in length and span 50 to 62 cm across the wings. The body mass of this species can range from 192 to 500 g.

Listen to the Common Moorhen


Behaviour

Diet and feeding
This species will consume a wide variety of vegetable material and small aquatic creatures. They forage beside or in the water, sometimes walking on lilypads or upending in the water to feed. They are often secretive, but can become tame in some areas. Despite loss of habitat in parts of its range, the Common Moorhen remains plentiful and widespread.

Breeding
The birds are territorial during breeding season. The nest is a basket built on the ground in dense vegetation. Laying starts in spring, between mid-March and mid-May in Northern hemisphere temperate regions. About 8 eggs are usually laid per female early in the season; a brood later in the year usually has only 5–8 or fewer eggs.

Nests may be re-used by different females. Incubation lasts about three weeks. Both parents incubate and feed the young. These fledge after 40–50 days, become independent usually a few weeks thereafter, and may raise their first brood the next spring. When threatened, the young may cling to the parents' body, after which the adult birds fly away to safety, carrying their offspring with them.

Common Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus, Rörhöna, นกอีล้ำ
Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany
By Klaus Rassinger und Gerhard Cammerer, Museum Wiesbaden - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37097869


Status and population
On a global scale – all subspecies taken together – the Common Moorhen is as abundant as its vernacular name implies. It is therefore considered a species of Least Concern by the IUCN.

However, small populations may be prone to extinction. The population of Palau, belonging to the widespread subspecies G. c. orientalis and locally known as debar (a generic term also used for ducks and meaning roughly "waterfowl"), is very rare, and apparently the birds are hunted by locals. Most of the population on the archipelago occurs on Angaur and Peleliu, while the species is probably already gone from Koror.

In the Lake Ngardok wetlands of Babeldaob, a few dozen still occur, but the total number of Common Moorhens on Palau is about in the same region as the Guam population: fewer than 100 adult birds (usually fewer than 50) have been encountered in any survey.

The Common Moorhen is one of the birds (the other is the Eurasian coot, Fulica atra) from which the cyclocoelid flatworm parasite Cyclocoelum mutabile was first described.[12] The bird is also parasitised by the moorhen flea, Dasypsyllus gallinulae.

Conservation status
Common Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus, Rörhöna, นกอีล้ำ
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2015.1.
International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 7 June 2015.


Subspecies
Five subspecies are today considered valid; several more have been described that are now considered junior synonyms. Most are not very readily recognizable, as differences are rather subtle and often clinal.

Usually, the location of a sighting is the most reliable indication as to subspecies identification, but the migratory tendencies of this species make identifications based on location not completely reliable. In addition to the extant subspecies listed below, an undescribed form from the Early Pleistocene is recorded from Dursunlu in Turkey.

Common Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus, Rörhöna, นกอีล้ำ



From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

www.birdforum.net


Sighted: (Date of first photo that I could use) 11 August 2018
Location: RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands


Common Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus, Rörhöna, นกอีล้ำ
Common Moorhen
11 August 2018 - RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands

Common Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus, Rörhöna, นกอีล้ำ
Common Moorhen
11 August 2018 - RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands

Common Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus, Rörhöna, นกอีล้ำ
Common Moorhen
14 August 2018 - Sefton Park, Liverpool

Common Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus, Rörhöna, นกอีล้ำ
Common Moorhen
14 August 2018 - Sefton Park, Liverpool

Common Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus, Rörhöna, นกอีล้ำ
Common Moorhen
13 March 2021 - eBird hotspot: Oroklini Lake, Cyprus

Common Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus, Rörhöna, นกอีล้ำ
Common Moorhen
13 March 2021 - eBird hotspot: Oroklini Lake, Cyprus

Common Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus, Rörhöna, นกอีล้ำ
Common Moorhen
16 March 2021 - eBird hotspot: Akrotiri Marsh, Cyprus

Common Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus, Rörhöna, นกอีล้ำ
Common Moorhen
23 March 2021 - eBird hotspot: Ghadira Nature Reserve, Malta

Common Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus, Rörhöna, นกอีล้ำ
Common Moorhen
4 May 2022 - eBird hotspot: Wilanów Palace & Lake, Poland

Common Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus, Rörhöna, นกอีล้ำ
Common Moorhen
4 May 2022 - eBird hotspot: Wilanów Palace & Lake, Poland

Common Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus, Rörhöna, นกอีล้ำ
Common Moorhen
4 May 2022 - eBird hotspot: Wilanów Palace & Lake, Poland



PLEASE! If I have made any mistakes identifying any bird, PLEASE let me know on my guestbook



       
                  



                                       

You are visitor no.
To www.aladdin.st since December 2005

Visitors from different countries since 26th of September 2011