Moorhen

Description:

A sooty black gallinule with greenish-yellow legs and red frontal shield, and red bill with yellow tip.

Habitat:

Common bird in wetlands almost throughout the African continent. Here, seen on shores of lake Awassa, in reed vegetation in a wooded area, not too far away from Awassa town.

Notes:

Lake Awassa (or Hawassa) is a part of main Ethiopian Rift Valley series of lakes, situated at some 1700 m of altitude. Like most of Rift lakes in Ethiopian highlands, this is an endorreic lake (landlocked mass of water having no outlet and not connected to the sea), and as such surrounded by marshes that regulate its levels through evaporation. Because of marshes and its forested shores, the lake is known as birdwatcher's paradise - very rich with various waders. Unfortunately, many of these marshes, or at least those of an easy access to visitors are very polluted by plastic garbage - mainly plastic bottles and bags...