I went for a walk this afternoon in my favourite little 'nature space' on the edge of North Ormesby, and got this nice picture of a baby bird belonging to today's spotlight species - Common Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus) - in Ormesby Beck, as well as one of its parents disappearing into the undergrowth downstream (showing its distinctive white tail flashes).
You have probably seen Moorhens on your local park lake or canal but you might have thought they were a kind of duck. However, they are not ducks, or even very closely related to them. If you look at the photo of the young one you will see that it doesn't have webbed feet, as a duck would, and (although you can't see this in either of my photos) the structure of the bird is very different from that of ducks.
The Moorhen has a very widespread (although somewhat patchy) distribution in Europe, Asia and Africa. A very closely related bird in North America, the Common Gallinule, used to be considered part of the same species until 2011 when ornithologists decided that it was different enough to be called a species in its own right.
The scientific name translates as "Little chicken with green feet", which is fairly accurate for the adults (but not for the chicks which have black legs and feet, as the first photo shows). The English name might make you think they would be found on moorland, but it comes from an old use of the word 'moor' referring to marshes and 'meres'. My father, who grew up in Ireland in the 1930s and 40s, knew it by the name of Waterhen, which is one of the old names that were used for it in England also.
I have often been asked - how do you tell the difference between a coot and a moorhen. Coots have white bills and a big white unfeathered patch on the front of the head - hence the phrase "bald as a coot", while Moorhens (adults at least) have red where the Coot has white, except for a yellow tip to the bill. Moorhens also have two white flashes under the tail which bob up and down as it swims away from you.
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