the.com/moorhen
a swamp chicken with flame-red lipstick that walks on water and parents like a tyrant.
means A small, dark waterbird of the rail family with a bright red beak and frontal shield, found paddling around ponds, marshes, and slow rivers.
from A plain compound of "moor" plus "hen." Here "moor" carries its older, broader sense — not just heathery uplands but any boggy, marshy waterland — so the moorhen is literally the "hen of the marsh." "Moor" descends from Old English "mōr," and "hen" from Old English "henn," both rooted in Germanic stock. The name has been applied to this red-billed waterbird for centuries, and it was once also known as the "waterhen," naming the same swampy habit a slightly different way.
- chick murder
- adults peck weak chicks to thin the brood
- face paint
- red frontal shield brightens with hormones and status
- water walk
- huge toes let it stride across floating vegetation
- global squatter
- thrives on every continent except Australia and Antarctica
- older siblings
- earlier chicks help feed the next clutch