Purple Gallinule and Purple Swamphen

[bulldurham]

Birds of a feather with a touch of crossbreeding...with a Common Moorhen

Purple Gallinule

Purple Swamphen

 

[jcdeboever]

Neat bird, I didn't see any of those when I was in Florida.

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[WesternGuy]

BD, nice pics. I believe that the Purple Swamphen is an introduced species and not a cross. They are native to just about every other part of the world except North America. One theory is that they were introduced during Hurricane Andrew in 1992 when a number escaped from various private "collections", including the Miami Zoo (go figure?).

Some background is available here - Florida's Introduced Birds: Purple Swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio)1 and a number of other websites. They are related to the Gallinules and Coots. Like so many other species introduced into Florida ( e.g., boas), only time will tell what their impact on the local environment will be.

WesternGuy

 

[zombiesniper150 15]

Beautiful pics.

 

[bulldurham]

I was about to amend the post about the same thing...they are considered an invasive species much like the Egyptian Goose...and there were some of them in the same area as where these were taken. Thanks for the update of info.

 

[WesternGuy]

Egyptian Geese - now I didn't know that these were present in Florida. I also read that they have captured some Nile Crocodiles in Everglades - Yikes, what's this world coming to! Sounds like Florida is becoming a "dumping" ground for folks who buy exotic pets and then don't want them after they get too big or too expensive to handle.

WesternGuy

 

[mahams704]

Beauty of nature

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