Swamp birds 2: Dusky Moorhen

Like the coot and the swamphen, the Dusky Moorhen (Gallinula tenebrosa) is a common bird found on water, in the reeds or browsing on grass around the edge of water. These are the Gallinules, which is Latin for ‘little hen”. They all are black with various other shades of blue or brown and have a showy frontal-shield and beak of bright colours – the coot has white, the Purple Swamphen and Dusky Moorhen both have bright red . Because the latter two are both red-beaked it is easy to confuse them. The Purple Swamphen (Porphyria melanotus) is a bigger bird with a definite blue wash on the neck and breast. It is bolder, and the head is quite a different, more bulky shape. The smaller, more timid moorhen has a yellow tip on the red beak. Here’s a comparison in photos:

Another curious character trait of Dusky Moorhens is the way they flash white patches on their tail as they walk or swim. Swamphens have a single white patch and they don’t flash it like moorhens do.

In the latter photo showing a swamphen and moorhen together, I point out that the swamphen is bigger; the moorhen is running away as I approach while the swamphen is boldly unconcerned, and one can make out the blue is more prominent on the swamphen.

A few years ago, when volunteers had constructed a nice pile of sticks in the lagoon at Yea Wetlands, a pair of moorhens built a nest right on top. The big floods have washed the sticks away now but when the lagoon is dry, rebuilding it for habitat would be a good idea.

So that’s cleared that up, then? Little hens with red beaks are not all the same. And I hope you can tell the difference.