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Pukeko, Western Springs, New Zealand
Black background Takahe close up profile shot
Domestic hen sized bird,  shiny Purple in color with  a red patch on the bald head and red beak with long red legs clumsily moving along the shore line or among the reeds.  This is the Purple Moorhen.  The male is a glistening purple color and the female is a little duller than the male with greyish-purple color. This bird can be seen clumsily moving around with calculated gait and the short stubby tail flicking at every step.   It is a very shy bird and hides itself among the cat-tail reeds at the slightest disturbance. Pairs are often seen and sometimes a party of them can be seen foraging at close fields adjoining the swamps. It is in the group of Rails, and has the characters of all rails.    Distribution is throughout the country and an interesting bird to study, which need lot of stealth.  Sometimes these birds are very amusing to watch as they try to clamber up the reeds awkwardly.   They forage on insects, mollusks, water beetles, and water-plant shoots. In their foraging sprees they sometimes invade the close by paddy fields and graze on the tender rice-shoots. This is not much of a problem as the farmer’s presence is enough to send them off scuttling for cover among the reeds.     The courtship display is more like children playing catch-me-if-you-can game. Their calls are also amusing as they do not keep to any standard call sometimes cackling like hens, sometimes hooting, sometimes hissing and shrieking. The male is seen to entice a female by holding a piece of reed in his beaks and offering it to females.   The nesting season is from June to September. The nest is large pad of reed leaves on a floating mass or hidden inside the reed beds.  3 to 6 eggs are laid with pale yellowish color and blotched or spotted with reddish brown.  Whether both the sexes share all domestic duties is a thing to be studied and discovered.
A close up of the face of a Moorhen, taken at a lake in Kent
A close-up of a purple gallinule (Porphyrio Martinica) wading through water in the Everglades
Purple Gallinule at the Wakodahatchee Wetlands in Delray Beach, Florida.
Western Swamphen, aka Purple Swamphen, Porphyrio porphyrio, fka Purple Gallinule, wading among vegetation at the side of a lagoon in Coto Doñana, southern Spain.
Australasian swamphen (Porphyrio melanotus), a beautiful interesting wetland bird. Colorful bird, blue with red beak with nice green and orange background photographed in the evening sun.
Close up of Pukeko or purple swamphen
A Grey-headed Swamphen in the amazing reserve of Green Cay wetlands in Florida.
The purple moor hen or Western swamphen, Porphyrio porphyrio, Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India
Taxon name: Australasian Purple Swamphen\nTaxon scientific name: Porphyrio porphyrio melanotus\nLocation: Newcastle, NSW, Australia
Pukeko in water of swamp
Common Gallinule
Purple moorhen in flight.
Coot duck on the Vermillion Lakes in Banff National Park
purple swamphen bird with blue feathers (pond on the background)
Portrait of a Dusky Moorhen, Gallinula tenebrosa, in the morning sun
Grey-headed swamphen
Deep blue Swamphen foraging on the ground
American Coot (Common Gallinule) in the family Rallidae. It was split from the common moorhen by the American Ornithologists water bird walking in shallow water pond at Sydney park, Australia.
A Purple Swamphen walking in the marsh, water's edge, looking for food.  Green vegetations in the foreground, blue water background.  Queensland, Australia
Australasian Swamphen (Porphyrio melanotus)
An American gallinule on Isla Isabella in the Galapagos archipelago.
Pukeko bird walking across the road, unrecognizable people pushing baby pram at Western Springs park, Auckland.
Taxon name: Tasmanian Native-hen\nTaxon scientific name: Tribonyx mortierii\nLocation: Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Purple swamphen in gap in green water plants on Lake Wendouree, Ballarat Australia.
Moorhen (allinula chloropus) struggling across a weed-filled pond.
Very successful waterbird of Australasia
Common Gallinule at the Wakodahatchee Wetlands in Delray Beach, Florida.
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