The common gallinule, called the common moorhen until 2011, lives year-round throughout Mexico and Central America, Florida and the coastal areas of the Gulf Coast and Southeastern U.S., coastal Southern California, and large swaths of South America. Its summer breeding range includes the Eastern and much of the Midwestern U.S.
It is dark with a white flank stripe, has a red forehead (or frontal shield) and bill with a yellow tip, has white stripes on the undersides of its tail, has yellow legs with red streaks on them,
and has a triangular bill like a chicken, instead of flat like a duck.
Like the purple gallinule, it has wide feet that allow it to stand upright on lily pads.
There are seven subspecies, two of which are found in Florida: the Antillean common gallinule, which is less brown above, and the North American common gallinule.
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| Is this an Antillean common gallinule? |
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| Is this the North American common gallinule? |
They were very prevalent in the Circle B Bar Reserve
and less common in the Orlando Wetlands.
They are interesting birds, but don't hold a candle to their cousins, the purple gallinule, that has looks in spades.
If you ask me, that's a prosthetic beak, something they can take on and off. It looks like cheap plastic.
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