- Porphyrio madagascariensis
Identification
38–50 cm (15-19¾ in)
- Red bill and frontal shield
- Large feet
- Green back
Distribution
Locally in Egypt, Africa south of the Sahara and Madagascar.
Taxonomy
This is a monotypic species.
Formerly considered conspecific with Western Swamphen, Grey-headed Swamphen, Black-backed Swamphen, Philippine Swamphen and Australasian Swamphen under the name Purple Swamphen.
Habitat
Reed beds and wet areas with high rainfall, swamps, lake edges and damp pastures.
Behaviour
The birds live in pairs and larger communities.
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.
Diet
Diet includes tender shoots and vegetable-like matter, invertebrates (like snails), small fish, and eggs from nests and they also eat ducklings. It is a good swimmer, especially for a bird without webbed feet.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2018. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2018. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- 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.
- Sangster, G. 1998. "Purple Swamp-hen is a complex of species." Dutch Birding (20) 13-22.
- Gill, F and D Donsker (Eds). 2015. IOC World Bird Names (version 5.3). Available at http://www.worldbirdnames.org/.
- Absolute Astronomy
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) African Swamphen. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 11 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/African_Swamphen
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
