Birds of the Upper Cumberland Region: Species Accounts

Common Gallinule (Gallinula galeata)

Abundance: Rare; 4 records in 3 Regional counties, 1 in Kentucky and 2 in Tennessee, each record involving a single individual (Map of UCR Distribution); data from the Regional bird-monitoring efforts are too few to determine a trend in the populations migrating through the Region (see also Regional Bird-Monitoring Plan).

Status: Transient during spring (3 records) and fall (1 record); designated as a threatened breeding species by the Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission (2004); designated as in need of management by the Tennessee Division of Natural Heritage (2004);  photograph; specimen without provenance data.

Information on Records: 

6 May 1976 (1—adult) City Lake Natural Area, Putnam County, Tennessee (Greg Archer fide William J. Jones; Williams 1976d; Stedman 1993).

Spring 1977 (1—age unspecified) Cookeville, Putnam County, Tennessee (fide William J. Jones; Stedman 1993), specimen [disposition uncertain].

9 May 1997 (1—adult) Pumphouse Pond, Pulaski County, Kentucky (Roseanna M. Denton photo).

25 September 2004 (1—adult) Pond near intersection Pollard Rd. and Will Thompson Rd., White County, Tennessee (Stephen J. Stedman and Douglas A. Downs; Casteel 2005a), a Fall Bird Count record.

YardWatch Results 2003 and 2004: No registrations.

Habitat: Marshes of various kinds, usually around the edges of ponds or small lakes with some open water and some water covered with water lilies or other emergent vegetation.

Remarks: A specimen of Common Gallinule resides in the frozen bird collection of the Biology Department at Tennessee Technological University; it was brought to the department in the mid-1990s by a person from Sparta, White County, Tennessee; the bird struck a vehicle and was brought in for rehabilitation, but it died soon thereafter (D. L. Combs pers. com.).

    Like many other species of birds, the Common Gallinule has undergone occasional name changes at the hands of the Committee on Taxonomy and Nomenclature of the American Ornithologists' Union.  For many decades this species' name was Common Gallinule, but in the latter part of the Twentieth Century the aforementioned committee changed the name to Common Moorhen in response to purported evidence that this species was identical to the species of that name in Europe.  However, further investigation led to evidence showing that these two populations differ sufficiently to be given separate species status, and in 2011 the committee changed the common name back to Common Gallinule (and changed the scientific name to Gallinula galeata).

Check-lists of Birds for the Counties of the UCR

Check-lists of the birds of each county of the Upper Cumberland Region may be viewed by clicking on the links below. For each county, there are two check-lists: one list that shows the species that have been observed and where possible documented in the county within the larger list for the entire Region; and one list that includes only the species observed in the county with annotations for the date and observers for at least one sighting (the ultimate goal of the latter list will be to include annotations for the very first known Regional observation of each species in that county; this goal is probably one that will take many years to complete, if completion is even a possibility). To see if the species discussed in this species account has been observed in a county, click below or click on the link for the Map of UCR Distribution near the top of the page.

Check-lists of Birds for Some Public Access Birding Sites of the UCR

Check-lists of the birds of some public access birding sites within the Upper Cumberland Region may be viewed via the links below. To see if the species dealt with in this species account has been observed within any of these sites, click on the appropriate link below. See the pages for each county within the Gazetteer for links to additional smaller public access birding sites with check-lists in progress.

Literature Cited