Common Gallinule Gallinula galeata Scientific name definitions

Editor's Note: Due to a recent taxonomic revision, this species account is still being edited and may contain content from an earlier version of the account.

Widespread in the Americas, with a striking appearance and a variety of loud and unusual calls, the Common Gallinule is a rail the size of a small duck, with short tail and wings, long toes, and (in the adult) a short, bright-red-and-yellow bill. Sexes are similar in plumage. This species is ecologically and behaviorally intermediate between the American Coot and the rails, and it resembles the Purple Gallinule in certain respects. It breeds throughout much of the eastern United States and locally in the West, wintering in southeastern and southwestern states with the largest concentration in Florida. Individuals are territorial in the breeding season but somewhat gregarious in winter. Closely associated with marshes, ponds, canals, ditches, and rice fields where pools with submerged or floating vegetation are interspersed with emergent or shoreline vegetation, this species forages for plant materials and macroinvertebrates on the water surface, among submerged plants, and in shoreline and upland vegetation. Its diet and foraging modes are diverse. In some regions, Common Gallinule use altered, artificial, agricultural, or urban habitats, including small ponds, during the breeding and nonbreeding seasons.

Historically known as the Common Moorhen, Florida Gallinule, and Black Gallinule, most American research on this species has been conducted in the southern United States, especially Louisiana and Florida, where gallinules are more common and conspicuous than in the North and West. Diet has been well studied in Florida (Mulholland and Percival 1982 Mulholland, R. and H. F. Percival. (1982). Food habits of the Common Moorhen and Purple Gallinule in north-central Florida. Proceedings of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies 36:527-536. Close , O'Meara et al. 1982 O'Meara, T. E., W. R. Marion, O. B. Myers and W. M. Hetrick. (1982). Food habits of three bird species on phosphate-mine settling ponds and natural wetlands. Proc. Ann. Conf. Southeast Assoc. Fish and Wildl. Agencies. 36:515-526. Close , Haag et al. 1987 Haag, K. R., J. C. Joyce, W. M. Hetrick and J. C. Jordan. (1987). Predation on waterhyacinth weevils and other aquatic insects by three wetland birds in Florida. Fla. Entomologist 70:457-471. Close ), and breeding biology in Louisiana (Bell and Cordes 1977 Bell, G. R. and C. L. Cordes. (1977). Ecological investigation of Common and Purple gallinules on Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge, Louisiana. Proc. Annu. Conf. Southeast Assoc. Fish Wildl. Agencies 31:295-299. Close , Matthews 1983b Matthews, Jr., W. C. (1983b). Home range, movements, and habitat selection of nesting gallinules in a Louisiana freshwater marsh. Master's Thesis, Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge. Close , Helm et al. 1987 Helm, R. N., D. N. Pashley and P. J. Zwank. (1987). Notes on the nesting of the Common Moorhen and Purple Gallinule in southwestern Louisiana. Journal of Field Ornithology 58:55-61. Close ). Although tolerant of urban and agricultural habitats, pollution and alteration of wetlands constitute potential threats to this bird. Relationships between vegetation structure and this species, including the effects of muskrats and other herbivores on habitat and the impacts of plant invasions, need study. Common Gallinules are hunted in the conterminous 48 states; little is known about how this affects populations.

There is an endemic subspecies in the Hawaiian Islands. In native Hawaiian mythology, a Common Gallinule brought fire to humankind, its forehead scorching red in the act.