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Purple Gallinule | Porphyrio martinica
Amerikaans purperhoen | Gallineta Morada
The Purple Gallinule breeds in marshes from the south-eastern United States to Argentina and is one of the most surprising vagrants to southern Africa. Almost all records involve exhausted juveniles that turn up on the Cape coast after crossing the South Atlantic.
Voice
On the breeding grounds a series of cackling, hen-like notes, kek-kek-kek, and a high nasal squeal. Vagrants in southern Africa are usually silent.
Recording: Juan Freile — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
About 33 cm, with long yellow legs and very long toes. Adults have a purple-blue head, neck and underparts, green to bronze-green back and wings, an entirely white undertail, a red bill tipped yellow and a pale blue frontal shield. Juveniles, as found here, are warm brown to ochre-brown with a pale throat and belly, olive-green to bluish-tinged wings, a dull yellowish to brown bill and legs that are already yellow.
Confusion species
Allen's Gallinule (Porphyrio alleni) is smaller, with an all-red bill, a blue or green shield and red legs; juveniles are smaller and smaller-billed and have pinkish to reddish-brown, never bright yellow, legs. The Lesser Moorhen (Paragallinula angulata) has a white flank line. The Purple Swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio) is much larger, with a massive red bill and red legs.
Habitat
On the breeding grounds, marshes with floating vegetation such as water lilies and water hyacinth. Vagrants are often found in odd places: in gardens, on beaches, along roads and at urban ponds, sometimes weakened. It eats seeds, fruit, shoots, insects and small animals.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
A few dozen records in South Africa, mainly along the coasts of the Western and Eastern Cape and in KwaZulu-Natal, with a few inland; also on Tristan da Cunha and other South Atlantic islands. It breeds from the south-eastern United States through Central America and the Caribbean to northern Argentina.
How and when to look
Not a bird to plan for: in the Cape winter watch for reports of strange brown gallinules in gardens and along the coast. Birds found are often taken to a rehabilitation centre; report any sighting with photographs to the South African rarities committee.
Conservation status
Not globally threatened and common in much of the Americas. In southern Africa a vagrant with no established population; most birds do not survive long after the crossing.
Scientific name
Porphyrio martinica | (Linnaeus, 1766)
Linnaeus described the species in 1766 as Fulica martinica; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Porphyrio was introduced in 1760 by Brisson. Porphyrio is Latin, from the Greek porphuriōn, the classical authors' name for the swamphen, from porphura 'purple'. martinica refers to Martinique in the West Indies, where the first specimen came from. The specimen the first description was based on came from Martinique.