Purple Gallinule

Purple Gallinule, adult

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About the map

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Purple Gallinule, juvenile

Purple Gallinule, adult swimming

Purple Gallinule, adult, perched

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Reproduction
9. Other Names

A beautifully colored bird of southern and tropical wetlands, the Purple Gallinule can be see walking on top of floating vegetation or clambering through dense shrubs. Its extremely long toes help it walk on lily pads without sinking.

Cool Facts

• The Purple Gallinue is essentially a tropical marshbird that just makes its way into the United States. But some go even farther afield. The Purple Gallinule, despite appearing to be an awkward flier, regularly turns up in northern states and southen Canada. It has even been found numerous times in Europe and South Africa.

Description

• Size: 37-36 cm (15-14 in)
• Wingspan: 55 cm (22 in)
• Weight: 208-288 g (7.34-10.17 ounces)

• Swims on surface of water like a duck and walks on floating plants rather like a chicken.
• Dark purple head, neck, and underside.
• Green back.
• Red bill tipped with yellow.
• Light blue forehead.
• Bill triangular like a chicken's, not flat like a duck's.
• Legs yellow.

Sex Differences

Sexes look alike, but male is slightly larger.

Immature

Downy chick is black. Juvenile is buffy tan instead of purple, with greenish back, dull bill, dull blue frontal shield, and yellow legs.

Similar Species

• Common Moorhen lacks the purple and has a white stripe along its side. Juvenile moorhen has a white side stripe, is duskier overall, and lacks colorful wings and blue frontal shield.

Sound

Cackling or clucking, and guttural notes.

Range

Range Map

© 2004 Cornell Lab of Ornithology

About the map

Summer Range

Breeds locally in southeastern United States, from South Carolina and Arkansas southward through the Caribbean, and Central and South America.

Winter Range

Winters from Florida and northern Mexico southward.

Habitat

Freshwater marshes with dense stands of floating vegetation.

Food

Seeds, flowers, fruits, grains, ans some invertebrates.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Bowl of grasses on floating mat of vegetation or attached to emergent vegetation.

Egg Description

Creamy white with small, irregular brown spots.

Condition at Hatching

Covered with black down, leave nest within one day. Fed by parents.

Other Names

Talève violacée, Gallinule violacée (French)
Gallineta morada (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

West, R. L., and G. K. Hess. 2002. Purple Gallinule (Porphyrula martinica). In The Birds of North America, No. 626 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.