黑水鸡 Common Moorhen
Gallinula chloropus

中型涉禽
体长 30~38 cm

虹膜 /iris

红色 /red

嘴 /bill

红色，嘴端黄色 /red with yellow tip

脚 /legs and feet

黄绿色 /yellow-green

目 │ 鹤形目GRUIFORMES 科 │ 秧鸡科Rallidae

野外识别 │ 嘴短，额甲亮红色。体羽几乎全为青黑色，仅两胁有白色条纹及尾下有两块白斑，尾上翘时白斑明显露出。在陆地停留时尾部不停上翘。叫声为“ pruk-pruk-pruk ”。

居留及分布 │ 广泛分布于除大洋洲以外的世界各地。国内见于新疆西部、华东、华南、西南，在长江以北主要为夏候鸟。在南岭为留鸟，在乳阳可见。

生境及习性 │ 栖息于挺水植物茂盛的沼泽、湖泊、水塘和水田中。通常两三成群，于茂密的草滩、沼泽、红树林中栖息觅食，取食草根、水草种子等，常在水中缓慢游动。繁殖期 4—7月。于岸边浅水处的芦苇丛或水草丛中使用芦苇、草叶筑巢。窝卵数 6~10 枚，卵椭圆形、灰白色。

Field identification │ A dumpy medium-sized waterbird. Adults have a red frontal shield and a short stout red bill with a yellow tip, and are slaty-black apart from a long white line along the top of the flanks and white undertail coverts (conspicuous when the tail is lifted or flicked). Juveniles are browner with dull-coloured frontal shield and bill. Calls include loud and harsh gargling pruk-pruk-pruk .

Distribution & status │ Very widely distributed in Europe, N Africa and Asia. In China it is a summer visitor in the north and mainly resident in the south. In Nanling, it is recorded at Ruyang.

Habitat & habits │ Common Moorhens occur singly, in pairs or flocks in a wide range of fresh and salt-water wetlands with fringing or emergent vegetation, including lakes and ponds, marshes,ditches and flooded paddyfields. They swim buoyantly and feed on a variety of aquatic plants,vertebrates and invertebrates, and nest in Guangdong between April and September.