Porphyrio porphyrio
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The western swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio) is a species of swamphen in the rail family Rallidae, one of the six species of purple swamphen. This chicken-sized bird, with its large feet, bright plumage and red bill and frontal shield is easily recognisable in its native range. It used to be considered the nominate subspecies of the purple swamphen, but is now recognised as a separate species. The western swamphen is found in wetlands in Spain (where the largest population lives), Portugal, southeastern France, Italy (Sardinia and Sicily) and northwestern Africa (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia).
The western swamphen was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the coots in the genus Fulica and coined the binomial name Fulica porphyrio. The specific epithet porphyrio is Latin for a swamphen. The word is from Ancient Greek πορφυριον (porphurion) meaning "swamphen" which in turn is from πορφυρα (porphura) meaning "purple". The species had been described in 1678 by the English ornithologist Francis Willughby under that Latin name Porphyrio and English name "purple water-hen". Linnaeas specified... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Visakhapatnam | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Indore | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Durg | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Coimbatore | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Zanzibar City | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 6 | Thiruvananthapuram | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Bengaluru | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Vasai-Virar | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Ponnani | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Chennai | 🇮🇳 India |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Prague Zoo | 🇨🇿 Czechia | |
| 2 | Barcelona Zoo | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 3 | Aquarama Barcelona | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 4 | Penza Zoo | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 5 | L'Oceanogràfic | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 6 | Leningrad Zoo | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 7 | Rákosův pavilon | 🇨🇿 Czechia | |
| 8 | Velemlokárium | 🇨🇿 Czechia | |
| 9 | Les Oiseaux du Marais Poitevin | 🇫🇷 France |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Western Swamphen sighting in Quanzhou on a given day, based on 9 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 62nd most-seen of the 85 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Western Swamphen in Quanzhou on a given day, against about 10% in April, July, September and November–February, the lowest months. That is one of Quanzhou's wettest months, with about 220 mm of rain against 45 mm in October. June, August and October have too few records to rate.
Between noon and 3 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Western Swamphen sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
40th of 77
Of the 77 cities where we can rate Western Swamphen sightings, Quanzhou ranks 40th at about 10%. The best odds are in Visakhapatnam (India, about 40%), Indore (India, about 40%) and Durg (India, about 40%).
Same family: Rallidae
The closest relatives of the Western Swamphen that you can see in Quanzhou (family Rallidae, Rails, Gallinules, and Coots) are Common Moorhen (about 60%), White-breasted Waterhen (about 30%) and Eurasian Coot (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Western Swamphen is recorded against all the birds logged in Quanzhou (9 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
