CreatureData

Dusky moorhen

Gallinula tenebrosa Gould, 1846

LCLeast Concernbirds

The dusky moorhen (Gallinula tenebrosa) is a species in the family Rallidae, order Gruiformes. Recorded adults weigh 493 g to 570 g. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Dusky moorhen (Gallinula tenebrosa)
Photo: JJ Harrison ( https://www.jjharrison.com.au/ ) · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the dusky moorhen

Weight
493 g – 570 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Wingspan
55 cm – 65 cmsrc for Wingspan
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Omnivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
wetlandsrc for Habitat
Egg incubation
22.5 dayssrc for Egg incubation
Young per litter or clutch
9 – 9.5src for Young per litter or clutch
Litters or clutches a year
2src for Litters or clutches a year
Lifestyle
Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Sedentarysrc for Migration
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
1 countrysrc for Countries on record

How big is the dusky moorhen?

DUSKY MOORHEN · WINGSPAN 65 CMADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 65 cm, the recorded maximum wingspan of the dusky moorhen is about 38% of the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Where does the dusky moorhen live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The dusky moorhen is listed for 1 country.

Australia
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. Australia

Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.

What is the dusky moorhen?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The dusky moorhen (Gallinula tenebrosa) is a bird species in the rail family and is one of the eight extant species in the moorhen genus. It occurs in Australia, New Guinea, Borneo and Indonesia. It is often confused with the purple swamphen and the Eurasian coot due to similar appearance and overlapping distributions. They often live alongside birds in the same genus, such as the Tasmanian nativehen and the common moorhen.

From the Wikipedia article “Dusky moorhen” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dusky_moorhen&oldid=1379733916), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the dusky moorhen endangered?

The dusky moorhen is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.

How is the dusky moorhen classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderGruiformes
  5. familyRallidae
  6. genusGallinula
  7. SpeciesGallinula tenebrosa Gould, 1846
Other names and names in other languages (40)
  • دجاج الماء الداكنArabic
  • دجاجة الماء الداكنةArabic
  • polla endoladaCatalan
  • slípka tmaváCzech
  • iâr ddŵr dywyllWelsh
  • Mørk RørhøneDanish
  • PapuateichhuhnGerman
  • MohrenteichhuhnGerman
  • Papua-TeichhuhnGerman
  • Sombra galinoloEsperanto
  • malhela galinoloEsperanto
  • Gallineta enlutadaSpanish
  • tumetaitEstonian
  • tummaliejukanaFinnish
  • Gallinule sombreFrench
  • סופית כההHebrew
  • mrka mlakušaCroatian
  • pápua vízityúkHungarian
  • Mandar kelamIndonesian
  • Gallinella foscaItalian
  • Gallinella tenebrosaItalian
  • ネッタイバンJapanese
  • 어둑쇠물닭Korean
  • tamsioji vištelėLithuanian
  • Zwart WaterhoenDutch
  • australsivhøneNorwegian
  • kokoszka ciemnaPolish
  • galinha-d'água-escuraPortuguese
  • galinha-d'água-enlutadaPortuguese
  • galinha-d'água-enlutadoPortuguese
  • galinha-de-água-enlutadaPortuguese
  • Тёмная камышницаRussian
  • sliepočka tmaváSlovak
  • Australijska barska kokicaSerbian
  • mörk rörhönaSwedish
  • Karaca SutavuğuTurkish
  • курочка чорнаUkrainian
  • 烏水雞Chinese
  • 暗色水雞Chinese
  • 暗色水鸡Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List

Relatives of the dusky moorhen

Other species in the same genus Gallinula.

VU, Vulnerable

Gough moorhen

Gallinula comeri

RallidaeNo free photo yet

CompareDusky moorhen vs Common moorhenDusky moorhen vs Samoan moorhenDusky moorhen vs Tristan moorhenDusky moorhen vs Makira woodhen

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the dusky moorhen?

An adult dusky moorhen weighs 493 g – 570 g and has a wingspan of 55 cm – 65 cm, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the dusky moorhen live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the dusky moorhen for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the dusky moorhen endangered?

The dusky moorhen is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

What kind of animal is the dusky moorhen?

The dusky moorhen (Gallinula tenebrosa) belongs to the family Rallidae in the order Gruiformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Dusky moorhen (Gallinula tenebrosa). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/dusky-moorhen

MLA

“Dusky moorhen (Gallinula tenebrosa).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/dusky-moorhen.

BibTeX
@misc{dusky_moorhen_2026,
  title = {Dusky moorhen (Gallinula tenebrosa)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/dusky-moorhen},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}