By Mariano Gómez · Updated on 7 October 2026

Birds

Common Moorhen, the water hen that lives in any wetland

Gallinula chloropusHear its song0:24

Photo gallery of the Common Moorhen

Identification of the Common Moorhen

The colouring of this medium-sized rail looks, at some distance, uniformly dark, almost black. Close up, the back takes on a tone between greenish and olive, with abundant metallic sheen, and the head is an intense slate colour, which turns bluish towards the nape. The underparts are dark grey, but the flanks are practically black and are edged with long white feathers, which define a striking broken line.

The undertail coverts are also white, drawing a conspicuous patch, the «anal shield», which it uses as an indicator of its moods and as a means of communication between members of its species. The bare parts are striking and change in breeding: the iris, normally brownish, takes on an intense crimson colour; the legs take on a yellowish colouring, which turns red on the upper half of the tibia; and the frontal shield, like the bill, takes on an intense red tone, in strong contrast with the bill’s yellow tip.

Young moorhens wear a rather modest dress, in which brownish tones with greenish tints dominate; they lack the frontal shield and the other colour ornaments of mature birds.

Adult

• Almost black at a distance; back greenish olive with metallic sheen and slate head.
• Red shield and bill with yellow tip; yellowish legs; white patch under the tail.

Young bird

• Brownish tones with greenish tints; no frontal shield.

Habitat and distribution of the Common Moorhen

It is a practically cosmopolitan species, present in all climatic regions, from temperate and warm to boreal, although it is absent from desert areas and the tundra, as well as from Australia. In the Palearctic it appears from North Africa to the Japanese archipelago, which includes the whole of Europe, where it reaches the British Isles and southern Scandinavia. Several subspecies have been described, and «chloropus» is the one that lives in the western Palearctic.

In Spain it is a very common bird across a good part of the peninsular territory and both archipelagos, although it is absent from Ceuta and Melilla and scarce in arid and mountainous regions, where it does not rise above 1,200 metres.

It is a very tolerant, accommodating species, which settles without difficulty in any wetland, regardless of its state of conservation or its extent: large marshes, lagoons, estuaries or deltas, banks of the main rivers, reservoirs, irrigation ditches and canals, urban ponds or waterlogged roadside ditches, and even polluted watercourses or dumping areas. If it has to choose, it prefers areas of calm water, with sandy or silty bottoms, surrounded by thick belts of marsh vegetation or riverside woodland.

It is fundamentally sedentary in Spain, although we regularly receive birds from northern Europe that use our wetlands as a stopover or wintering ground.

Etymology of the Common Moorhen

«Gallinula» is a Latin word meaning «little hen». «Chloropus» combines ancient Greek «khlōrós», «green», and «poús», «foot»: the green-footed one.

Population of the Common Moorhen

In the 2021 European Red List of Birds the European breeding population is estimated at between 1,790,000 and 2,670,000 mature individuals, with a decreasing trend. The last census in Spain, from 2007, recorded 116,800 birds, although the fluctuations of the population, the difficulties of making reliable estimates and the time elapsed mean the figure must be taken at a distance. The species seems to be declining in recent decades, both in Spain and in the rest of Europe, with consistent declines in Mediterranean areas and the Eurosiberian north. Owing to its great adaptability and its extensive range, it faces few threats, although on a local scale it can have problems through the loss of wetlands or predation by introduced species.

Nest of the Common Moorhen

It is a bulky structure of aquatic plants, sticks and stems, which both members of the pair make and which is normally set among marsh vegetation, although it may also be placed in riverside shrubs or in trees, sometimes on the nests of other birds.

Courtship and breeding of the Common Moorhen

Despite their gregarious nature in winter, moorhens are rather solitary when nesting. Once the pair is formed and the breeding territory chosen, which both birds defend fiercely against their rivals, nest building begins. The females lay between 2 and 13 greyish or greenish eggs, with some spots, which both adults incubate for 21 or 22 days. The chicks hatch covered in long, filamentous down, are very precocious and soon leave the platform to wander around the surroundings, always under parental guardianship. They make short flights at around 40 days old, although they stay with their parents for some time more. It is usual for the young of the first brood to help their parents in defending the territory and rearing the chicks of later clutches.

Diet of the Common Moorhen

Its diet is omnivorous, and is made up in varying proportions of animal or plant matter depending on the place and time of year. It searches both open water, where it even dives, and muddy shores, marsh vegetation and the meadows and crops near the wetland. It takes in a large amount of plant matter (rushes, reeds, cattails, submerged plants, shoots, blackberries, rose hips and cereals); the animal matter comes mainly from the invertebrates of the water, vegetation and shores, and sometimes it catches a small vertebrate or eats rubbish and even carrion.

Curious facts about the Common Moorhen

It is the most abundant and widespread rail in Europe and, perhaps, in the whole world. It is practically impossible to find a wetland, however small or degraded it looks, where it is not present. It uses its white patch under the tail as an indicator of its mood.

The Common Moorhen in Cabañeros

This website’s page on the rivers of Cabañeros cites it, as «polla de agua», among the birds that can be found breeding on the Bullaque river, slow-flowing across the plain of the raña, together with the Black Stork, the Common Kingfisher and the Mallard.

Where to see the Common Moorhen in Cabañeros

On the slow-flowing Bullaque river, on the plain of the raña of Cabañeros.

When

All year round: it is sedentary, and in winter birds from northern Europe also arrive.

What time

Throughout the day, among the vegetation of the banks.

Where

In any wetland, above all calm waters surrounded by marsh vegetation or riverside woodland.

What to look for

A dark bird with a red shield, which swims with its head forward and shows the white patch on the tail.

Videos of the Common Moorhen

Similar species

Eurasian Coot

Fulica atra

How to tell them apart

They are similar in appearance¹. The coot is a robust, good-sized rail, with almost black plumage, white tips to the secondary flight feathers and a white frontal shield that narrows towards the base of the bill, also white.

Photo: Fernando Losada Rodríguez, CC BY-SA 4.0

Other birds

Bibliography

• Jiménez García-Herrera, José. (2017). Aves de Cabañeros y su entorno. Madrid, Spain: Ecohábitat.
• SEO Birdlife - Sociedad Española de Ornitología
• https://es.wikipedia.org/
• Hume, Rob. (2016). Guía de campo de las Aves de España y Europa. Barcelona, Spain: Ediciones Omega