Porphyrio porphyrio
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
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...
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Indore | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Visakhapatnam | 🇮🇳 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 | Zoo Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Shenzhen Safari Park | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 5 | Audubon Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Kyiv Zoo | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | |
| 7 | Wrocław Zoological Garden | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 8 | Moody Gardens | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | ZooTampa | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 11 | Aquarama Barcelona | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 12 | Zamość Zoo | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 13 | Rivne Zoo | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | |
| 14 | Заасад | 🇧🇾 Belarus | |
| 15 | Penza Zoo | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 16 | Tbilisi Zoo | 🇬🇪 Georgia | |
| 17 | Kuala Lumpur Bird Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 18 | Екопарк Ковалівка | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | |
| 19 | L'Oceanogràfic | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 20 | Leningrad Zoo | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 21 | King's Garden | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 22 | World of Birds Wildlife Sanctuary and Monkey Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 23 | Farm in the City | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 24 | Africarium | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 25 | Rákosův pavilon | 🇨🇿 Czechia | |
| 26 | Velemlokárium | 🇨🇿 Czechia | |
| 27 | Exotic Animal World | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 28 | Les Oiseaux du Marais Poitevin | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 29 | terrarium ogrodu zoologicznego we Wrocławiu | 🇵🇱 Poland |
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report a Western Swamphen sighting in Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary on a given day, based on 93 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 45th most-seen of the 173 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February to April
In those months about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Western Swamphen in Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary on a given day, against about 30% in November, the lowest month. Those are among Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary's driest months, with almost no rain against 55 mm in August. May to 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.
2nd of 39
Of the 39 parks where we can rate Western Swamphen sightings, Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary ranks 2nd at about 50%. The best odds are in Keoladeo National Park (India, about 60%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Western Swamphen is recorded against all the birds logged in Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary (93 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
