The Struggling Life of Common Moorhen at University Lake

[yenchin]

Here at National Taiwan University, there is a beautiful lake called the Drunken Moon Lake which is basically right next to my office at Astro-Math Building. I have been observing a family of Common Moorhen for months. The first time I noticed them was probably back in March, when the pair had just one baby [the black dot in the middle of the picture below].

A few weeks ago I noticed the pairs now have 5 new babies, and I have been visiting them almost every day. Here is one of the 5 on the first day I saw them.

Shown below is the juvenile bird (the single survivor of the previous hatches, i.e. the little baby in the fist photo) taking care of its little sisters and brothers while the parents go out to find food.

On 2nd of June, one of the little birds went missing. I still saw the poor little guy in the early afternoon, and somehow it was no longer around by late afternoon. It was a pretty safe environment, there isn't many predators around as far as I know, so it's a mystery as to what have happened. Sadly two days later another little bird also disappeared. I saw one of them ate a huge rubber band a day before, so perhaps that killed it.

The remaining three is growing stronger by the day though.

Today to my horror one of the adult birds is limping. Upon closer observation, I can see that one of its toes is severely broken, to the point of near-amputation, dangling to its foot.
It can still swim and fly pretty well though. I don't know whether I should be worry about this? Note the injured foot:

Life sure is tough out there... actually if look carefully, the juvenile has defective toes as well: all toes on the left foot appear cut with no claws at all:

Fortunately it can run very well:

The juvenile usually sleeps quite far apart from the family at night on the other side of the lake, but usually, though not always, join the parents to take care of the little ones in the day.

I guess I will continue to observe the family and hopefully nothing awful happens again

 

[Evo]

You must take care of them and keep us posted on their progress!

 

[nucleargirl]

awww poor moorhen... but this is a nice thread! I like the photos!
and I like moorhen - they are so devoted to the chicks! when we go duck-feeding, the moorhen always save the bread in their mouths for their chicks, unlike the greedy ducks...

 

[QuarkCharmer]

awww poor moorhen... but this is a nice thread! I like the photos!
and I like moorhen - they are so devoted to the chicks! when we go duck-feeding, the moorhen always save the bread in their mouths for their chicks, unlike the greedy ducks...

Ducks are big jerks. Research their behavior and prepare to be shocked.

These are really great pictures, thanks for posting them.

 

[lisab]

Great thread, yenchin!

You're right, life is so hard for wild animals. Always wanting food and in real danger of being someone else's food. It breaks my heart to see hurt animals .

 

[yenchin]

The Moorhen family is doing fine today, though one of the parents is still limping (I still don't know how to identify the male or female). It doesn't appear to have too much difficulty to move around to find food, so as long as there is no bad infection sets in I think it will survive.

Moorhen is indeed devote to their chicks. Indeed it surprises me to learn that the juveniles will often assist in taking care of the little ones, including sheltering them and feeding them. This is quite rare among birds as far as I know.

By the way the Drunken Moon Lake is a rich habitat for many species of birds, the ones that are easy to spot are:

Malayan Night Heron.

Black-crowned Night Heron

This goose is usually caged by the caretaker. It is very rare to see it outside.

Black swan.

White ducks.

 

[Evo]

Wow, so many beautiful birds!

 

[Astronuc]

Wonderful birds.

Both the Malayan Night Heron and Black-crowned Night Heron are medium herons, and similar to Bitterns.

In our area, we see Great Blue and Great Grey Herons, in addition to a variety of ducks and geese. Occassionally we see kingfishers and cormorants, which are interesting to watch.

 

[yenchin]

I am here to report that the injured adult (I am pretty sure it's male now...) is now walking well and no longer limping around. The dangling toe had finally broke off, so now it lost a toe...But on the other hand yesterday late evening there was a fight with a Black-crowned Night Heron and one of the 3 remaining chicks had injured its feet . Or maybe it got hurt earlier, but I am not sure. The chick is hiding in the bush today so I couldn't take a proper look as to how bad the injury is.

 

[Evo]

I am here to report that the injured adult (I am pretty sure it's male now...) is now walking well and no longer limping around. The dangling toe had finally broke off, so now it lost a toe...But on the other hand yesterday late evening there was a fight with a Black-crowned Night Heron and one of the 3 remaining chicks had injured its feet . Or maybe it got hurt earlier, but I am not sure. The chick is hiding in the bush today so I couldn't take a proper look as to how bad the injury is.

I hope it gets better, thanks for the update on the other's toe. Glad he seems ok, but sad he lost it. I wonder what happened?

 

[pergradus]

Is that lake polluted? It looks filthy.

 

[Evo]

Is that lake polluted? It looks filthy.

Looks like any other duck pond.

 

[yenchin]

Is that lake polluted? It looks filthy.

It's not polluted by humans, just lots of organic material...:yuck: Time to update with photos again.

The mother of the Moorhen family.

The chicks are growing stronger and bigger now :-)

This is the chick with severe leg injury, you can see the redness of exposed flesh. The juvenile bird was taking care of it when the parents were away to find food with the other two chicks.

It seems that the heron is indeed quite a threat. I suspect the injury is due to heron attack.
When this guy flew near, the adults or juvenile will be on high alert and make alarming sound to warn the chicks.

The juvenile bird rushed to stand between the injured chick and the heron.

Another heron contemplating something...

 

[Evo]

I don't like bad birds!

That is a very brave juvenile. Awww, look at all of the baby fluffers. :!)

 

[nucleargirl]

the heron looks mean as well - like a bandit!

 

[Dominance]

Run at the heron whenever you see it. It will fear you and never come back. Unlike crows, of which will remember your face.

awww poor moorhen... but this is a nice thread! I like the photos!
and I like moorhen - they are so devoted to the chicks! when we go duck-feeding, the moorhen always save the bread in their mouths for their chicks, unlike the greedy ducks...

Ducks are the sheer definition of arrogance.

 

[yenchin]

Run at the heron whenever you see it. It will fear you and never come back. Unlike crows, of which will remember your face.

Ducks are the sheer definition of arrogance.

Reminds me of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhmZBMuZ6vE" Crazy story at 4:05.

 

[Dominance]

Reminds me of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhmZBMuZ6vE" Crazy story at 4:05.

Haha, I love this video.

One of the videos that cemented my love for crows. Everyone hates them around here, but they're brilliant birds and I love their look. Underrated birds.

 

[yenchin]

It's time to update again.

1. Unfortunately, the injured little bird has lost *all* toes on one of its legs, as you can see from this picture:

But it is nevertheless living strong. The juvenile pays great deal of attention to the injured sibling, here's a pic where the juvenile was cleaning something stuck onto its face.

2. The parents are starting to get busy again, taking turns to go back to their nest which they did not visit for quite some time now having been busy taking care of the chicks. I am guessing they are planning to have more kids Yes, that pagoda-like shelter in the middle of the lake is where their nest is. No one can reach it on foot, so pretty safe from humans and other land animals.

3. There is also a little duck.

Unlike the moorhen, the duck mum is pretty careless, stepping on its own baby multiple times accidentally and even kicked it down the lake. Not to mention the mum got into a fight in front of the baby with a neighbor! What is she teaching her young!

4. And here's a Grey Treepie.

5. And this, I guess, is a juvenile of Malayan night heron?

 

[Evo]

Yenchin, your pictures become so real to me with your comments, I'm looking forward for more.

I am still sad that the baby lost it's foot.

 

[SpringCreek]

Good photos and comments.

That treepie pic is especially nice.

 

[nucleargirl]

awww thanks for the new pics! Its good to see the chicks growing up, and so nice to see the other birds too!

 

[yenchin]

As seen from my office few days ago...

Moments later: heavy rain and strong wind.

The rain came and went for days, and the lake is slightly overflood, with water level rising into the bushes where the Moorhen family hangs out. I wasn't too worried about the chicks, but I guess the nest (with new eggs?) might suffer some damages in the wind, not too sure about it because it's in the middle of the lake and I can't see clearly what's going on there.

The three chicks got onto a floating structure to stay dry from the flood.

One the the chicks (middle left) with the juvenile (middle right). They are almost the same size now [small picture is for comparison of their previous size, though I have no idea whether it's the same chick]. So the chicks are becoming juveniles very soon. :-)

Duck mum watches as its baby explores the neighborhood.

 

[Evo]

Wow, that was quite a storm! Keep the pictures coming, I love watching them grow up.