Purple Swamphen

Latin Name: 
Porphyrio porphyrio
Category: 
Size: 
45cm
Description: 

Sexes alike. Purplish-blue plumage; long red legs with oversized toes distinctive; thickish red beak; bald red forehead (casque); white under stumpy tail, seen when tail flicked up; bald red patch on forehead smaller in female than male. Small parties amidst reeds and other vegetation on marsh and jheels; sometimes large gatherings on vegetation-covered waterbodies; walks on floating growth, rarely swims; rather tame in some areas.

Habitat: 
vegetation and reed-covered jheels, tanks.
Food: 
vegetable matter, seeds, tubers; known to damage paddy crops; insects, molluscs and small frogs.
Distribution: 
mostly resident throughout the subcontinent, up to about 1,500m in Kashmir.
Call: 
Call Description: 
noisy when breeding, a mix of cackling and hooting notes.
National Status: