Breeding male © Minal Patel eBird S30630339 Macaulay Library ML 31085301
Female/immature male © Shailesh Pinto
Nonbreeding adult/immature © Deepak Sahu
Breeding male © Neoh Hor Kee
Female/immature male © Basanta Behura
+ 2
Breeding male © Neoh Hor Kee

Watercock Gallicrex cinerea

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Identification

POWERED BY MERLIN

Large, distinctive marsh dweller, elusive and often difficult to see in the heavily vegetated wet fields and marshes it inhabits. Male is unmistakable, with black body, brown-edged wing coverts, and red-and-yellow bill with raised, spiky red frontal shield (unlike smaller moorhen). Females and immature are similarly large but speckled brown above with tan faces, and lack male’s frontal shield. Males are very vocal when breeding, producing liquid-sounding gulps comparable to a water bottle emptying. Both sexes make a range of incisive, guttural clucking and creaking calls, as well as a sharp “keek” in alarm.

POWERED BY MERLIN