Eurasian moorhen

Voice

An explosive high kurrk or kittick, like something snapping in the reeds, often followed by a series of lower clucking notes dying away. There is also a bubbling drawn-out krrrrk in territorial disputes. Vocal all year, most of all at dusk and in the first hours of darkness; migrants give a sharp krek on October nights.

Identification

Slate-blue head, neck and breast, olive-brown mantle, a bright red bill base with a yellow tip, a red frontal shield and long green-yellow legs with huge toes. A broken white line runs along the flanks, and there are two white patches under the tail split by a black centre. Juveniles are dull brown with a pale throat and dark bill.

Confusion species

Coot is bigger, uniformly black with a white shield; Moorhen is browner and shows the white flank line. More awkward is a juvenile Moorhen beside a juvenile Coot: look for the white flank stripe and the yellow bill tip. In reeds a Water Rail can surprise, but it is slimmer with a long red bill.

Habitat

Any fresh water with dense bankside cover: ditches, ponds, town parks, small pools, marshes, canal banks and shrubs overhanging the water. It builds a bulky cup of reed blades low over the water in reed, sedge or a bramble tangle. Feeds on foot on lawns and banks, often within a few metres of people.

Range and movements

Breeds almost throughout Europe, from Ireland to Russia, with gaps only in the far north. Very common in the Netherlands and present everywhere, including city centres. In Spain it breeds in fresh wetlands from north to south, from river margins to rice fields, and southern sites gain northern birds in winter.

• Resident
• Breeding (summer)
• Winter
• Passage
• dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

Where and when to look

Any month works, but March and April bring spectacular territorial fights, two birds upright in the water with feet thrown forward. Visit a town pond or polder ditch early in the morning. In winter check lawns beside open water, where whole families graze mixed in with Coots and gulls.

Conservation status

Numerous and not threatened, although Dutch numbers have slowly declined since the 1980s. Clearing and hard-piling of ditches, stone-faced banks, increased predation by fox and feral cat, and hard winters all contribute. In urban areas the species remains as common as ever and benefits from supplementary feeding.