Moorhen

Description:

A pigeon-sized but stockier and more round waterfowl, soot black with green-yellow legs, red frontal shield and redbill with yellow tip. Juvenile birds (pics 3 and 4) are dusky-brown with green legs with colors only developing on the bil.

Habitat:

This is a common marsh hen in many wetlands of Africa, and can be found all-year round. Here, observed on swampy grounds together with mixed flocks of egrets and herons on their nesting ground and during nesting season. This nesting ground is a marsh (pic 5) in urban environment of one of the bigger towns (Port Harcourt) in Nigeria.

Notes:

This should be African common moorhen or sub-species G. c. meridionalis, the sub-species commonly found all-year round in sub-Saharan Africa.