Australasian Swamphen - BirdForum Opus

Adult P. m. melanotus
Photo © by Neil
Sydney, Australia, February 2005

Porphyrio melanotus

Identification

Immature
Photo © by julien
Ballarat, Lake Wendouree, Victoria, Australia, February 2005

38–50 cm (15-19¾ in)

• Red bill and frontal shield
• Orange legs and feet
• Long, slim toes.
• Black back and head
• Eyes are red

Females are smaller than males. Juveniles are similar to adults but duller, with black eyes and black bill and shield that turn to red around 3 months of age.

Similar Species

Rare Takahe is about twice the size (in weight) and flightless, with a green back and wing cover. Juveniles may be confused with the Spotless Crake which lacks a frontal shield and has a more slender bill. Dusky Moorhen is more likely to be seen swimming, and is smaller and greyer with a yellow tip to its red bill, and a dark centre to its white undertail. Black-tailed Native Hen is much smaller with a green-and-orange bill, white spots on its flanks and a longer black tail.

Distribution

Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, Moluccas and Lesser Sundas, New Caledonia, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Fiji.

Taxonomy

Formerly considered conspecific with African Swamphen, Grey-headed Swamphen, Black-backed Swamphen, Philippine Swamphen and Western Swamphen under the name Purple Swamphen.

Chick
Photo © by julien
Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, November 2007

Subspecies

Five subspecies recognized:

• P. m. pelewensis:

• Palau Islands (Koror and Anguar)

• P. m. melanopterus:

• Moluccas and Lesser Sundas to Aru Islands and New Guinea

• P. m. bellus:

• Extreme south-western Australia

• P. m. melanotus:

• Northern and eastern Australia, Tasmania to New Zealand, Kermadec and Chatham Island

• P. m. samoensis:

• Admiralty Island to Samoa, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands and Fiji

Habitat

Reed beds and wet areas with high rainfall, swamps, lake edges and damp pastures.

Behaviour

The birds live in pairs and larger communities.

Photo © by fthsm
Olympic Park, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, October 2008

Breeding

The birds make a nest of woven reeds on floating debris or amongst reeds. More than one female will use the nest and they share incubating the eggs for 24 days. Each bird lays 3-6 speckled eggs and the nest can contain up to 12 eggs.

Diet

Diet includes tender shoots and vegetable-like matter, invertebrates (like snails), small fish, and eggs from nests and also eat ducklings. It is a good swimmer, especially for a bird without webbed feet.

Vocalisations

Territorial ‘crowing’ is the loudest and most commonly heard call. A variety of contact calls including ‘’n’yip’, ‘hiccup’ and ‘squawk.’

Movements

No regular long distance migrations. Local seasonal movements, in response to changing habitat.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2018. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2018. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Trewick, S.A. 1997. "Flightlessness and phylogeny amongst endemic rails (Aves: Rallidae) of the New Zealand region." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. (352) 429-46.
3. Sangster, G. 1998. "Purple Swamp-hen is a complex of species." Dutch Birding (20) 13-22.
4. Gill, F & D Donsker (Eds). 2018. IOC World Bird List (v8.2). doi : 10.14344/IOC.ML.8.2. Available at http://www.worldbirdnames.org/
5. Wikipedia
6. Absolute Astronomy
7. Dey, C.; Jamieson, I. 2013. Pukeko. In Miskelly, C.M. (ed.) New Zealand Birds Online. http://www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz
8. Garcia-R, J. C. & Trewick, S. A. 2015. Dispersal and speciation in purple swamphens (Rallidae: Porphyrio). Auk 132(1): 140-155. PDF
9. Marchant, S.; Higgins, P.J. (eds) 1993. Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic birds. Vol. 2, raptors to lapwings. Oxford University Press, Melbourne.
10. Ripley, S. D., Lansdowne, J. F. & Olson S. L. (1977) Rails of the world: a monograph of the family Rallidae. Godine.
11. Taylor, B. (2017). Purple Swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from http://www.hbw.com/node/53681 on 28 March 2017).

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Australasian Swamphen. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 25 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Australasian_Swamphen

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