Common Moorhen

Gallinula chloropus

Order: Gruiformes
Family: Rallidae
Presence in the Strait: Resident
Abundance: abundant
IUCN (global): LC · Least concern
In Spanish: Gallineta común

Photograph: Alexis Lours, CC BY, vía iNaturalist

Length: 32–35 cm
Wingspan: 50–55 cm
Weight: 300–350 g

Presence in the Strait

Abundant resident in wet areas. Somewhat fewer and rarer than the Spotted Crake towards the start of the 20th Century.

Identification

Medium-sized dark brownish-grey bird with red frontal shield and bill, white under-tail coverts with black central stripe and white marks on flanks. Juveniles are greyer with whitish necks and greenish-brown frontal shields and bills. When swimming, head nods characteristically.

Movements

Sedentary with post-breeding dispersal and the arrival of birds from the North in winter. Peaks in 1st hf. April, 2nd hf. October and 1st hf. November.

Ring recoveries

Denmark (1) and Germany (1).

Bioestrecho editorial text. Last revised: 8 September 2026.

Photographs from iNaturalist observations with the licence checked file by file. Those marked “Strait” were taken within the area; place and date are those of each observation.

Calendar in the Strait

15 %

Peak in December. Observations under CC0 or CC BY licences. The distribution also reflects observation effort.

Where it is seen

Open records from the atlas database, in cells of about 3.6 km. Opacity follows the square root of the count, and also reflects where people observe most.

See on the map

First open record: 13 April 1981
Latest record: 8 January 2026

The oldest and the most recent open observation in the extended area. A recent first observation does not mean the species is new: it means nobody had published it openly before.

Conservation

The catalogues, Andalusian and Spanish, are what binds; the Red Book assesses the Spanish population with IUCN criteria, and the global Red List is the context.

LCNTVUENCR

Andalusian Catalogue: Not included
Spanish Catalogue: Not included
Red Book of the Birds of Spain 2021: LC · Least concern · breeding — NT · Near threatened · wintering or migrating
Global Red List (IUCN): LC · Least concern

Andalusian Catalogue: Junta de Andalucía, list of 24 April 2025. Spanish Catalogue: MITECO, table of 30 June 2025. Red Book: SEO/BirdLife, 2021 (Annex I). IUCN: via GBIF, 6 September 2026. Red Book and IUCN categories are assessments; catalogue categories are legal obligations.

Phenology compared

Monthly distribution in proportion, by decade. It shows whether the passage is getting earlier or later.

1990–1999

2000–2009

2010–2026

Proportions, not totals: observation effort grew faster than any population.

Where they come from

2 birds ringed in other countries and recovered in the area.

Denmark1
Germany1

See the journey on the map

Classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Gruiformes
Family: Rallidae
GBIF taxon key: 5228199

Sources

Distribution and calendar: Bioestrecho's own database, ingested from GBIF and OBIS
Photograph: Alexis Lours, CC BY, vía iNaturalist
Taxonomy: GBIF backbone, pending WoRMS for marine taxa
Editorial text: written by Bioestrecho
Last revised: 8 September 2026

Common Moorhen

Presence in the Strait

Identification

Movements

Ring recoveries

Gallery