Overview
The common gallinule has yellow legs, a red forehead, and dark plumage other than white flank stripes.
Taxonomy
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Bird
- Family
- Rallidae
- Genus
- Gallinula
- Species
- galeata
Habitat
It lives around well-vegetated marshes, ponds, canals, and other wetlands in the Americas.
Diet
Omnivorous.
Behavior
The common gallinule will fight to defend its territory. The nest is a basket built on the ground in dense vegetation. Laying starts in spring, between mid-March and mid-May in northern hemisphere temperate regions. About 8 eggs are usually laid per female early in the season; a brood later in the year usually has only 5–8 or even fewer eggs. Nests may be re-used by different females. Incubation lasts about three weeks. Both parents incubate and feed the young. These fledge after 40–50 days, become independent usually a few weeks thereafter, and may raise their first brood the next spring. When threatened, the young may cling to a parent's body, after which the adult birds fly away to safety, carrying their offspring with them.
Hunting
More information needed.
Conservation Status
Listed as Least Concern by IUCN.
Subspecies (7)
- Barbados common gallinuleGallinula galeata barbadensis
- Hawaiian common gallinuleGallinula galeata sandvicensis
- Antillean common gallinuleGallinula galeata cerceris
- Subandean common gallinuleGallinula galeata pauxilla
- Andean common gallinuleGallinula galeata garmani
- North American common gallinuleGallinula galeata cachinnans
- Southern American common gallinuleGallinula galeata galeata