The Common Moorhen is a small, duck-like marsh bird easily identified by its distinctive red and yellow bill with bright red frontal plate that extends up and onto its forehead. The Moorhen has a slate grey to black body with a brownish coloration to its back and wings, as well a white stripe on the upper flanks. The legs and feet are yellow, with the feet having elongated toes like a chicken, allowing the bird to easily walk across floating vegetation without sinking.

Early Florida pioneers referred to this bird as a Marsh Hen, or Swamp Chicken, no doubt due to the Moorhen’s chicken-like walk and feeding behaviors. Found in marshy wetland areas throughout much of North America, Central America, and into northern South America, the Common Moorhen feeds on a wide variety of food items such as vegetation, seeds, insects, larva, and other small invertebrates.

Moorhens make a cup shaped nest constructed of dead vegetation lined with grass and leaves, usually located in a low shrub or on the ground. Moorhens typically lay 6 – 10 eggs, and both parents will incubate the eggs which take 3 weeks to hatch.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 3:18 am and is filed under The Birds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.