Gallinule hen of water

The gallinule hen of water or more simply hen of water ( Gallinula chloropus ) is a Oiseau pertaining to the order of the Gruiformes and the family of the rallidés .

She is very frequent in the ponds and the ponds, as in the rivers where the vegetation is sufficiently dense.

Characteristics

Length: 32-35 cm
Scale: 50-55 cm
Weight: 260-400 G

One easily recognizes it with his red nozzle at yellow end. Its plumage goes from the dark blue to the black, with brown wings and a white spot with tail. Its legs are green-yellow and are not webbed.

Food

food Mode : omnivore. It seldom plunges to be nourished but does not hesitate to seek its food over the bank.

Reproduction

It nidifie in the foliages at the edge of water and defends its territory jealously, especially in period of reproduction. The male and the female, once the formed couple, remain faithful until the death of one or other. The females can lay in the nest of another and the adults can adopt or remove chicks of other females to raise them. The small ones are raised by the two parents. A water hen couple can up to four have brooded each year, from May to September. The young people of the brooded first help their parents to raise those of the second. The chicks have a red zone of skin on the head; they are nourished by the parents until they learn how to find their food only, that is to say approximately two weeks.

Distribution

The surface of distribution of this species is very vast, covering Americas, the Antilles, Europe and Africa as well as the Malagasy area, the South Asia and certain Pacific Islands (see the subspecies for more precise details).

Subspecies

endemic Gallinula chloropus correiana

of the archipelago of the the Azores

Gallinula chloropus chloropus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Europe (see chart), Russia, North Africa, the Middle East.

Gallinula chloropus indica Blyth, 1842

Of the India and the Malaysia with the Japan and Taiwan

Gallinula chloropus meridionalis (C.L. Brehm, 1831)

sub-Saharan Africa and island Grey waxbill

Gallinula chloropus pyrrhorrhoa A. Newton, 1861

Malagasy Area: Madagascar, Maurice and the Meeting.

Gallinula chloropus orientalis Horsfield 1821

sub-Saharan Africa and Malayan area and Philippines.

Gallinula chloropus guami Hartert, 1917 Endemic

of the archipelago of the Mariannes.

Gallinula chloropus sandvicensis Streets, 1877 Endemic

of the islands Hawaii.

Gallinula chloropus cachinnans Bangs 1915

the United States, Bermuda, Galapagos Islands.

Gallinula chloropus cerceris Bangs, 1910

the Antilles

Gallinula chloropus barbadensis Jump, 1954

Barbados

Gallinula chloropus pauxilla Bangs, 1915

Colombia, Ecuador and the North-West of Peru

Gallinula chloropus garmani Allen, 1876

Peru, Bolivia, north of Chile and the North-West of Argentina.

Gallinula chloropus galeata (Lichtenstein, 1818)

Trinidad, Guyanes, Uruguay, north of Argentina.

The animal and the man

Vernacular names

The water hen is often observed, mainly when it leaves the vegetation of the edge of water to nourish itself, and consequently it received very many vernacular names in all its surface of distribution. The Japanese call it round of applause ( バン ) and the Madagascans aretaka . It names mandar batu in indonésien, debar in the islands Palau and ghjallinaccia in Corsican, Estonian TAIT in , khokhonoka in sotho and gallozz iswed in Maltais.

Philately

This bird is represented on more than twenty stamps, in particular by the postal authorities of the Caribbean area and several European countries.

External bonds

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