ABSTRACT
The commonest and most widespread of Kenya's rails, capable of occurring on any patch of swamp that combines some open water with fringing vegetation, up to 3000 m. Uncommon in forest, bamboo and thicket (Br), in drier situations than the other forest-dwelling Sarothrura, the White-spotted Pygmy Crake (185)(Sn). The Purple Gallinule is thought to be resident, though there is a record of a May-June wanderer around 3000 m at Mau Narok 61D. The Kenyan breeding records are some of the very few between 8°N and 13°S (Sn) and, while the Lesser Moorhen can occur in most months, it is a pronounced intra-African migrant. Lack of breeding records from L Turkana parallels the Red-knobbed Coot (197) and Common Moorhen (201) and, although the effects of low observer coverage in this remote area cannot be excluded, there remains the possibility that these species are non-breeding visitors from further N.
