Purple Swamphen's feet

The Purple Swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio) is a fascinating bird to watch. It plucks things out of the water with its elongated toes, and then picks and pecks at what it finds before swallowing it.

The Purple Swamphen is a large rail. It is mainly dusky black above, with a broad dark blue collar, and dark blue to purple below. As the Purple Swamphen walks, it flicks its tail up and down, revealing its white undertail. The bill is big, red and strong, and the legs and feet are orange-red.

This bird makes a loud, penetrating 'kee-ow', as well as some softer clucking sounds between members of the group while feeding.

Bigger feet.

The Purple Swamphen have transported themselves from Australia to New Guinea and New Zealand and throughout the islands of the south-west Pacific. It has been suggested that the New Zealand population of Purple Swamphens (locally called the Pukeko) originated in Australia. I always thought the NZ bird was a slightly different version. What do our NZ blipfriends think?

I last blipped a swamphen back on 25th May. At that time of the year the colours were more intense.