Скачать или смотреть Moorhen (Gallinula Chloropus)

The Moorhen is a small waterfowl with a short neck and small head. It has long greeny-yellow legs with long, narrow toes and no webbed feet. The adult male is a greeny-brown colour with a bright red bill. The wings have a white stripe and the under-tail is white. The female has a distinctive red bill also but is a paler-greeny brown with a cream wing stripe and under-tail.

Often confused with the Common Coot, which is a larger and more aggressive bird of similar shape. However both male and female Coots are dark grey with a white frontal shield.

A mainly resident bird where there are ponds, small lakes, canals and slow moving rivers. It swims with a series of jerky head movements and when feeding on land pecks and behaves like a hen.

The Moorhen starts to breed in March, laying a clutch of 7-12 eggs in a nest of twigs and grass, hidden within rushes or waterside vegetation. The eggs are pale yellow with a rusty brown and black spots. The young when they hatch are black and fluffy with red bills and blue eye patches. The chicks are soon very active and mobile following hatching.

Diet consists of aquatic plants, molluscs, insects, worms, seeds and grass. The Moorhen is found in all wetlands and waterways in Ireland. The Moorhen is quite noisy and often shrieks. When annoyed it can stretch out its call to a long kyaaaar. When alarmed, Moorhens dive underwater and move off before re-appearing a short distance away.

Like other members of the rail family, it likes to pick over marshy ground and grassy areas near water, walking very deliberately and spreading its weight carefully as thought it might sink. Setting flight can require some effort often requiring a long run-up across water before take-off. However it can swim very well.

The pair of Moorhen in the video clip were spotted on the Millrace off the Fear English River at Gorteen.