FOUND AWILD ANIMALIN DISTRESS?
AFTER HOURSWILDLIFEEMERGENCY?
The Common Gallinule has long toes that makes it possible to walk on soft mud and floating vegetation. The toes have no lobes or webbing to help in swimming, but the moorhen is a good swimmer anyway. The Common Gallinule sometimes lifts its feet out of the water in front of the body while swimming, perhaps to pass over vegetation. Newly hatched chicks of the Common Gallinule have spurs on their wings that help them climb into the nest or grab emergent vegetation. Twelve subspecies of the Common Gallinule are recognized from around the world, most differing only in size or brightness of plumage. One subspecies is found only in the Hawaiian Islands and has been known as the Hawaiian Moorhen, or ‘Alae ‘Ula. The oldest recorded Common Gallinule was at least 9 years, 10 months old when it was recaptured in Louisiana in 1940, during some of the very earliest banding studies in the U.S.
Facts source: Cornell University – All About Birds