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The Sibley Guide to Birds contains marvelous illustrations originally drawn by the author using watercolors. This is a great identification guide, not only for adult birds, but juveniles, also. |
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Common Moorhen
Gallinula chloropus
Wingspan: 20 - 23"
Length: 12 - 15"
Weight: 14 ounces
Male/Female similar
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Common Moorhen - Cameron Prairie NWR Visitor Center |
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Common Moorhen - Mom and Chick - Anahuac NWR
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Physical Description:
Slate-gray chicken-like bird with conspicuous chicken-like red bill with yellow tip and red forehead; legs and very long feet yellow-green; white line along sides of adult; white undertail coverts divided by gray in the middle.
Habitat:
Common Moorhens live in freshwater marshes of cattails, bulrushes, willows, with pools, ditches of open water 3 - 4 feet deep and shallows of 6 - 12 inches.
Range:
Almost worldwide, on all continents except Australia and Antarctica, but not in desert regions.
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Common Moorhen with Chick - Eating from surface of floating plants - Anahuac NWR
Common Moorhen
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Feeding Habits:
Common Moorhen pick food from the surface of floating plants, and also dives mostly for seeds, grass, rootlets, soft parts of water plants. They also eat snails, crawfish (see photo below), grasshoppers and other insects.
Common Moorhen with crawfish in its grasp - Anahuac NWR
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Common Moorhen on Nest - Anahuac NWR
Nest:
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Mass of dead stems of cattails, bulrushes, or other water plants (see above photo); may be partly floating, with wide shallow cup in center for eggs; sloping runways (to the left side of the nest in the picture above) from nests to water that are used by adults to reach or leave nest. Pairs also build other visible platforms on which to brood young.
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Eggs of the Common Moorhen in Nest
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Eggs:
7 - 12 cinnamon to olive-buff, spotted with browns.
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Incubation:
By both sexes, 18 - 21 days.
Chicks:
At hatching, downy chicks (see photo at right) are black with black-tipped red bill, skin at bae of bill bright red, white-tipped curly hairs on chin and throat.
Adults eat eggshells after hatching of chicks, and feed chicks soon after hatching, mostly nymphs of dragonflies and mayflies.
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Common Moorhen Chick - Check out this little one's ENORMOUS FEET!!!
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