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Articles

Vol. 43 No. 4 (2012)

FIRST NORTH AMERICAN RECORD OF THE COMMON MOORHEN (GALLINULA CHLOROPUS) CONFIRMED BY MOLECULAR ANALYSIS

Submitted
November 24, 2025
Published
October 1, 2012

Abstract

On 12 October 2010 Schwitters briefly observed a gallinule or moorhen in a small interior wetland on Shemya Island, Alaska (52° 43′ N, 174° 07′ E). In spite of considerable effort, he could not find the bird again until the evening of 14 October 2010, when it was relocated foraging in another interior wetland (Figure 1) and was collected (University of Alaska Museum [UAM] 27369). The bird likely arrived on Shemya with a decaying typhoon (Malakah) that passed just north of the island on 27 September 2010 but went undetected in the intervening time because of its secretive behavior. The specimen is a juvenile male with the following characteristics: mass 269 g, trace amounts of fat, left testis 4 × 2 mm, wing chord 169 mm, tail 62 mm, tarsus 50.1 mm, bill (from anterior edge of nares) 14.5 mm, bill height (at same point) 8.8 mm, bill width 5.2 mm, feet/legs yellow-green (Figure 2).

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