fascinating birds Moorhens. At Pennington flash a couple or few years ago, i watched one steel the eggs of Little Ringed Plover. The Plover was faking injury with broken wing display to try and distract the Moorhen but the Moorhen just steamed in there and got the eggs. Didn't eat the eggs, just seemed to break them and throw the bits away.

cheers for that,its something that realy supprised me,and believe me after 30 years birding, not much supprises me these days

Hi John
Over a two year period I did quite an indepth study of moorhens. Family bonds are very strong and the feeding of the youngest siblings by the older is very common indeed. I also found that the parents seemed to feed the second brood less with the majority of the feeding being done by the older juvs. Duties such as grooming also seemed to be done by the older juvs and was a very intimate thing to watch. This behaviour is also seen in Coots but is much more prevelent in Moorhens. moorhens and coots are a very underrated bird but they are a delight to watch and study closely.

a bit bored in the wet weather the other day and watching moorhens!i can't ever remember seeing this in 30 years ,but i noticed juv moorhens from obviously the 1st brood this year say april,helping the perent birds feeding the newly hatched second brood?the elder young were actively searcing for food and taking it back to the newly hatched young.,and passing the food to them.anyone else seen this beforewatching moorhensmuch better than twitching a yellow nosed albertross