• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Moorhen with yellow beak, London WWT (1 Viewer)

Clarke Robinson

Well-known member
Hi Everyone

I took this pic a few weeks back at the Wetlands Centre in Barnes. It's the first time I saw a Moorhen with a yellow beak. Is this quite common or unusual?

TIA for any info.
 

Attachments

  • Moorhen 02.jpg
    Moorhen 02.jpg
    91.3 KB · Views: 766
Pretty unusual I'd say, I don't recall ever seeing one like this. Where did you see it at Barnes? I might go and have a look myself...
 
I do wonder about these birds, are they merely leucistic or can we call them xanthochromistic (or however it's spelt)?

Anyway as I understand it there is usually a genetic cause to the discolouration, although diet can be a cause if the bird is poorly nourished, but that one looks fine to me. They're not terribly common, not so unusual either.
 
A similar bird was seen around Cambridge during the summer of 2005. Photo by Simon Stirrup attached (another appear in the CBR 2005).
 

Attachments

  • moorhen.jpg
    moorhen.jpg
    33.1 KB · Views: 315
[They do happen and these hybrids have yellow soft parts.../COLOR]

Yellow soft parts?????????

Seriously though, have seen this bird (or one like it!) many times at Barnes.
 
[They do happen and these hybrids have yellow soft parts.../COLOR]

Yellow soft parts?????????

Seriously though, have seen this bird (or one like it!) many times at Barnes.


I don't quite get what you mean. But by soft parts one means the legs, eyes, beak etc (i.e. anything that's not convered by feathers.) That's how I've used this term so far anyways.

Cheers,

Dimitris
 
I don't think these two British birds are hybrids - if you look at the extent of white on the barnes bird it's a totally normal Moorhen apart from the bill. So is the Cambridge bird - look at the toes, no lobing at all, and normal amounts of white. Plus both have brownish backs.

An interesting pitfall though - not all yellow/orange-billed Moorhens are hybrids (probably!), but some are...
 
Hello Poecile.

Didn't say that they were. Said that they could be. I agree with you that these are just aberant Moorhens...

Have a good day/night.

Dimitris
 

Attachments

  • mhen1.jpg
    mhen1.jpg
    107.6 KB · Views: 292
  • mhen2.jpg
    mhen2.jpg
    93.5 KB · Views: 164
Last edited:
Oh Ok, didn´t see any white in the flanks of the Cambridge bird at the first photo and jumped to the wrong conclusion-both birds aberrant moorhens then.

Thanks for correction!
 
Redless Moorhen

There is a Moorhen without red at the London Wetland Centre. Is it the same bird or offspring of the bird?moorhen.jpg
 
I do wonder about these birds, are they merely leucistic or can we call them xanthochromistic (or however it's spelt)?

Anyway as I understand it there is usually a genetic cause to the discolouration, although diet can be a cause if the bird is poorly nourished, but that one looks fine to me. They're not terribly common, not so unusual either.

Xanthochromism is excessive yellow pigment. In almost all cases of "xanthochromism" it is in fact a variant of leucism or schizochromism. That is, another pigment is reduced, revealing (normally present) yellow pigment in its place. It may be that this condition has always been this way, but in that case it is just a form of leucism, not its own thing.

This may be diet caused, I'm not sure how the red is formed in moorhen beaks. Presumably carotenoids...
 
Warning! This thread is more than 2 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top