From Opus

Photo by Neil
Sydney, Australia

Alternative names: Purple Gallinule¹; Purple Moorhen

Porphyrio porphyrio

Includes African Purple Swamphen

[edit] Identification

• Red bill and frontal shield
• Large feet
  

Europe: purple-blue plumage
Africa and south Asia: green back
Australasia and Indonesia: black backs and heads
The Philippines subspecies: pale blue with a brown back

[edit] Distribution

Locally in Africa, southern Eurasia, Australasia and southwestern Oceania

[edit] Taxonomy

[edit] Subspecies²

• P. p. porphyrio - Iberian Peninsula and nw Africa
• P. p. madagascariensis - "African Purple Swamphen"; Egypt, Africa south of the Sahara and Madagascar
• P. p. caspius - Caspian Sea to north-western Iran and Turkey
• P. p. seistanicus - Iraq and southern Iran to Afghanistan, Pakistan and north-western India
• P. p. poliocephalus - India to Sri Lanka, southern China, northern Thailand, Andaman, Nicobar Islands.
• P. p. viridis - Southern Myanmar to southern Thailand, southern China, Malay Peninsula and Indochina
• P. p. indicus - Sumatra, Java, Bali, Borneo and Sulawesi
• P. p. pulverulentus - Karekelong Island (Talaud Islands) and Philippine Islands
• P. p. pelewensis - Palau Islands (Koror and Anguar)
• P. p. melanopterus - Moluccas and Lesser Sundas to Aru Islands and New Guinea
• P. p. bellus - Extreme south-western Australia
• P. p. melanotus - Northern and eastern Australia, Tasmania to New Zealand, Kermadec and Chatham Island
• P. p. samoensis - Admiralty Island to Samoa, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands and Fiji

[edit] Polyphyly and Paraphyly^3,4

The Purple Swamphen is found to be paraphyletic with respect to P. mantelli Takahe. To retain monophyly, a six-way split has been proposed with groupings: porphyrio, madagascariensis, poliocephalus, indicus, pulverulentis, and melanotus.

[edit] Habitat

Reed beds and wet areas with high rainfall, swamps, lake edges and damp pastures.

[edit] Behaviour

The birds live in pairs and larger communities.

[edit] Breeding

The birds make a nest of woven reeds on floating debris or amongst reeds. More than one female will use the nest and they share incubating the eggs for 24 days. Each bird lays 3-6 speckled eggs and the nest can contain up to 12 eggs.

[edit] Diet

Diet includes tender shoots and vegetable-like matter, invertebrates (like snails), small fish, and eggs from nests and also eat ducklings. It is a good swimmer, especially for a bird without webbed feet.

[edit] References

1. Not to be confused with Purple Gallinule, Porphyrio martinica.
2. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist.
3. Trewick, S.A. 1997. "Flightlessness and phylogeny amongst endemic rails (Aves: Rallidae) of the New Zealand region." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. (352) 429-46.
4. Sangster, G. 1998. "Purple Swamp-hen is a complex of species." Dutch Birding (20) 13-22.
5. Wikipedia
6. Absolute Astronomy

• List of references

[edit] External Links