---
title: "Eurasian Moorhen"
description: "Gallinula chloropus — Birds. The common moorhen (Gallinula chloropus), also known as the waterhen, is a bird species in the rail family (Rallidae)."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/animal/eurasian-moorhen
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Eurasian Moorhen

> Gallinula chloropus — Birds. The common moorhen (Gallinula chloropus), also known as the waterhen, is a bird species in the rail family (Rallidae).

- Scientific name: *Gallinula chloropus*
- Category: `birds` (Birds)
- Habitats: `freshwater` (Lakes & rivers)
- iNaturalist observations: 132894
- Wikidata: [Q18847](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18847)
- iNaturalist taxon: [201282](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/201282)

## Names

- en: Eurasian Moorhen
- de: Teichhuhn
- es: Gallineta común
- fr: Gallinule poule-d'eau
- nl: Waterhoen
- pt: Galinha-d'água
- pl: Kokoszka zwyczajna

## Countries with the most observations

GB (24227), RU (10263), DE (9774), FR (9231), TW (8939), ES (7244), IT (7195), CN (4879), ZA (4295), NL (3405), IN (3231), PT (2850)

## Summary

The common moorhen (Gallinula chloropus), also known as the waterhen, is a bird species in the rail family (Rallidae). It is distributed across many parts of the Old World, across Africa, Europe, and Asia. It lives around well-vegetated marshes, ponds, canals and other wetlands. The species is not found in the polar regions or many tropical rainforests; generally it is one of the most common Old World rail species, together with the Eurasian coot in some regions.

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_moorhen

## Photo

![Eurasian Moorhen](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/eurasian-moorhen/medium.jpg)

Photo: 葉子 · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/80100362

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/eurasian-moorhen?lang=en` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).