Purple Gallinule  Porphyrula matinica
Purple Gallinule  Porphyrula matinica

The Purple Gallinule is a colorful small hen size bird with very long toes, enabling it to walk on lily pads and other floating plants as it makes its way through fresh water swamps, marshes and edges of ponds.  It nests in still or slow moving waters in dense marsh growth one to three feet above water.
It has many predators of its eggs and chicks such as the Common Moorhen, Boat-Tailed Grackle, night herons, alligators, snapping turtles, raccoons and bullfrogs.  It is a game bird in 31 states, excluding Florida, and is decreasing in numbers with the draining of swamps being vulnerable to loss of wetlands. 

Copyright Mark Tiefenbach                              Deep Brook Nature Photography
Copyright Mark Tiefenbach                              Deep Brook Nature Photography
Copyright Mark Tiefenbach                              Deep Brook Nature Photography
Copyright Mark Tiefenbach                              Deep Brook Nature Photography
Copyright Mark Tiefenbach                              Deep Brook Nature Photography
Copyright Mark Tiefenbach                              Deep Brook Nature Photography
12x18 canvas          $125
8x12 print
8x12 print
8x12 print