Hawaiian gallinule

The Hawaiian gallinule (Gallinula galeata sandvicensis) is an endangered chicken-sized water bird in the rail family. It is also variously known as the Hawaiian common gallinule, Hawaiian moorhen, Hawaiian common moorhen, mudhen, or ‘alae ‘ula (“burnt forehead” - for its prominent red frontal shield) in Hawaiian, and sometimes misleadingly as the Hawaiian red coot. It is a subspecies of the common gallinule that is endemic to the tropical Hawaiian Islands of the north-central Pacific Ocean.

It is dependent on freshwater wetland habitats with dense emergent vegetation for nesting. Once found on most of the main islands of the Hawaiian archipelago, it has undergone a major population and range decline and is now a resident breeder only on Kaua'i and O'ahu. Causes of the decline were mainly loss of habitat, hunting and predation by introduced animals, with numbers subsequently stabilised at a low level through legal protection and conservation management. Despite being hunted for food, it was mythologised as the keeper of fire in Hawaiian religion.