Purple Swamphen Porphyrio porphyrio melanotus
Cetennial Park, Sydney. March 2006 and March 2008

Worldwide there are, depending on the authority, six or more subspecies of the large and rather primitive-looking Purple Swamphen Porphyrio porphyrio - a bird breeding in reed beds across southernmost Europe, Africa, tropical Asia, and Australasia - which differ mainly in the plumage colours. The races are:

• P. p. porphyrio in Europe
• P. p. madagascariensis in Africa
• P. p. poliocephalus in tropical Asia
• P. p. melanotus in much of Australasia
• P. p. indicus in Indonesia
• P. p. pulverulentis in the Philippines

In Australia the Purple Swamphen is found around freshwater swamps, streams and marshes, and is common throughout the east and north, with an isolated population in the extreme south-west of the continent. Birds 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 Swamphen (locally called the Pukeko) originated in Australia.

 

 

 

 

(Last image with Dusky Moorhen Gallinula tenebrosa in background)

All photographs copyright Charlie Moores.