Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus)

Image: © David Dixon Taken: 21 Apr 2019

The overgrown canal between Radcliffe and Little Lever is an ideal habitat for moorhens, providing still freshwater with reeds and bushy ground-cover; the canal here is well-populated with moorhens as well as their cousin, the coot, as well as mallards, geese and swans. Unlike mallards, moorhens and coots are not ducks but are members of the rail family Rallidae. Coots and moorhens are similar in size and colour of plumage but, whereas the Coot is mostly black and has a distinctive white front face shield and beak, the Moorhen has dark brown back wings and a more bluish-black belly. They also have a red frontal face shield and beak with a yellow tip. Moorhens also have and long, green legs. Moorhens take their common name, not from the moor as it suggests (they are seldom seen in a moorland habitat). In this case, moor is possibly a corruption of ‘mere’ (meaning water), hence the bird’s alternative common name of water hen (hen because the bird’s feet are like those of a hen). http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/m/moorhen/ RSPB https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_moorhen Wikipedia

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