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, locally in Hawaiian as the `alae `ula (“burnt forehead” - for its prominent red frontal shield), 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.