Common Moorhen

The common moorhen is a rail with mainly black and brown plumage, white streaks along the flanks, a white undertail, yellow legs and a red frontal shield above a red bill tipped yellow. The adult's shield has a rounded top and fairly parallel sides, which helps separate it from the common gallinule of the Americas, once treated as the same species. Young birds are browner and lack the red shield. Subspecies differ in size, shield size and the colour of the wing coverts and undertail (Wikipedia, general species account).

It lives around well-vegetated marshes, ponds, canals, rivers and even city park lakes, and is one of the commonest rails of the Old World. It eats a wide range of plant material and small aquatic animals, foraging beside or in the water, sometimes walking over lily pads or upending. It is often secretive but can become tame. Birds are territorial in the breeding season (Wikipedia, general species account).