- Porphyrio indicus
Identification
- Red bill and frontal shield
- Large feet
- Black back and head
Distribution
From southern Myanmar and southern Thailand to southern China, the Malay Peninsula, Indochina, Sumatra, Java, Bali, Borneo and Sulawesi.
Taxonomy
Formerly considered conspecific with African Swamphen, Grey-headed Swamphen, Western Swamphen, Philippine Swamphen and Australasian Swamphen under the name Purple Swamphen.
Subspecies
Two subspecies recognized:
- P. i. viridis - Southern Myanmar to southern Thailand, southern China, Malay Peninsula and Indochina
- P. i. indicus - Sumatra, Java, Bali, Borneo and Sulawesi
Habitat
Reed beds and wet areas with high rainfall, swamps, lake edges and damp pastures.
Behaviour
The birds live in pairs and larger communities.
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.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2015. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2015, with updates to August 2015. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- 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.
- Sangster, G. 1998. "Purple Swamp-hen is a complex of species." Dutch Birding (20) 13-22.
- Gill, F and D Donsker (Eds). 2015. IOC World Bird Names (version 5.3). Available at http://www.worldbirdnames.org/.
- Wikipedia
- Absolute Astronomy
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Black-backed Swamphen. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 5 February 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Black-backed_Swamphen
