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Purple Moorhen

Porphyrio porphyrio

Notes:

about the size of a large village hen. this one also resides in local ponds and can be seen walking on the aquatic plants.

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10 Comments

lori.tas
lori.tas 12 years ago

Susan, the American purple gallinule (Porphyrio martinica) is a close relative of purple swamphens/moorhens (Porphyrio porphyrio). The word gallinule describes a group of birds, that along with, crakes, coots and rails, make up the family rallidae.

ChimeTsetan
ChimeTsetan 12 years ago

thank you guys.
@ashish, i don't know much about these plants, could be a lotus or water lilly. I can't differentiate. but next time i will get an image of the flower of this plant so that you can identify whether its lotus or lilly. :)

LauraMaria
LauraMaria 12 years ago

Wow, that is so much more impressive than the common moorhens we have in England. What a beautiful set of pictures! @Susan, as far as I'm aware, gallinules are in the same family as moorhens, and I think the name is interchangeable for some species. As a general rule, moorhens are smaller than gallinules :)

SusanEllison
SusanEllison 12 years ago

is moorhen the same as gallinule?

lori.tas
lori.tas 12 years ago

We have the darkest form in Tasmania, auntnance. They are exceptionally good at thwarting my attempts to photograph them

Hema  Shah
Hema Shah 12 years ago

lovely ctsetan!!

auntnance123
auntnance123 12 years ago

Very nice. Thanks for the introduction; I didn't know there were so many. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_Swam...

Ashish Nimkar
Ashish Nimkar 12 years ago

Is this Moorhen walking on Lotus leafs spread on water..?

Ashish Nimkar
Ashish Nimkar 12 years ago

Cute bird...

lori.tas
lori.tas 12 years ago

Lovely photos. I think this is easily the most beautiful of all the purple moorhens.

ChimeTsetan
Spotted by
ChimeTsetan

Karnataka, India

Spotted on Jul 25, 2011
Submitted on Jul 25, 2011

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