What they like

He likes messy edges with water. Ditch sides, ponds, park ponds, reed margins. Preferably with partly open water and some cover to dive into. Make banks shallow, leave a strip of reeds and sedge, and put some scrub here and there. In a garden or yard: a small pond with bulrush, yellow iris and water mint already helps. Don’t clear leaves and branches everywhere; they likes to forage in that stuff.

Ecological importance

An omnivore with a taste for aquatic critters, slugs, worms and insect larvae, plus seeds and young shoots. He keeps banks tidy by rummaging about and is themself food for raptors and foxes. A moorhen in your neighbourhood is usually a sign: there’s shelter and life in the water.

When in the Netherlands

All year round. In winter supplemented by birds from Germany and Denmark.

Status

Common. Nationwide fairly stable, locally sensitive to tidy/steep banks and aggressive bank‑clearing.