Western Swamphen

The western swamphen is one of six species of purple swamphen and is easily recognised in its native range: a chicken-sized bird with large feet, bright plumage and a red bill and frontal shield. Its calls are loud, quick, bleating and hooting notes that are hardly bird-like in tone, and it is particularly noisy in the breeding season. The precocious chicks are downy black and able to leave the nest soon after hatching (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds in warm reed beds, and clambers through the reeds eating tender shoots and vegetable matter. Breeding is generally seasonal, tied to peak rainfall in many places. Each bird can lay three to six speckled eggs, pale yellowish stone to reddish buff, blotched and spotted with reddish brown, incubated by both sexes for 23–27 days, and young chicks are fed by their parents and other group members for 10–14 days. SoIB 2023 rates it a Low conservation priority, a resident of wetland with a Very Large range of about 1.3 million km² and a long-term increase of about 75% (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).