Moorhen
Description: A small blackish looking bird (breast feathers actually a bluish green) with yellowy green legs and toes. The feet of this bird are quite long. The bill is bright red with a yellow tip.
Habitat: The moorhen lives on and near water with thickly vegetated banks.
Food: This bird eats acquatic plants, grass, insects and tadpoles.
Distribution: Seen in Britain all year round.
Nesting: The moorhen will make it’s nest near the water’s edge in dense vegetation on the banks of the water. The nest is usually made from reeds, grass and rushes.
Eggs: The breeding period is from April to July. The female lays between 4 and 10 eggs which take between 19-21 days to hatch. There can be up to 3 broods each year. The young will leave the nest after approximately 40-50 days.
Did You Know?
- The male and female moorhen look very similar.
- The moorhen makes a quirky sound.
- When swimming the moorhen has a tendency to make jerky movements with it’s head.
I hope that you are lucky enough to see a moorhen - I have seen a moorhen down by the canal when I went for a walk recently and also on our farmland last year near one of the field ditches. Let me know where and when you have seen a moorhen.
Birds eggs Farm Wildlife Moorhen Nests
My other half John does a lot of carp fishing in the South of England, there are always lots of moorhens on the various lakes, they do tend to swim across his line and set his buzzers off!
Comment by LOUISE — September 18, 2007 @ 6:20 pm
Hi Louise,
I bet John finds taht annoying when he is fishing but I think that the moorhen is pretty bird and enjoy seeing them.
Thanks for dropping by and commenting.
Sara @ farmingfriends
Comment by Sara @ Farming Friends — September 19, 2007 @ 8:17 am
In a pond near my house their is a moorhen nest with 5 eggs in it, even though we go right up to the nest because it is about a metre a away and the water is about 30cm high the mum still comes back even though we examine her eggs. We are now waiting for them to hatch a couple of days!! We was going to take them and hatch them but i thought it might be a bit hard being so small and everything!!
Comment by ellie — April 30, 2008 @ 3:02 pm
Hi Ellie,
Thanks for visiting and leaving this interesting comment. Please let me know how the hatching goes. I would love to see wild birds hatching. It is very exciting for you.
Hope the hatch goes well.
Sara @ farmingfriends
Comment by Sara @ Farming Friends — May 1, 2008 @ 5:58 am