Purple moorhen is called pukeko in foreign language. It is a medium-sized wading bird with 13 subspecies.
Purple moorhen often moves in pairs or family groups. It is docile and timid, mostly active in the early morning and dusk, hiding in the reeds during the day. It is noisy when active, making frequent "click, click" and "hum" sounds. When frightened or leading young birds, the tail feathers will move up and down, revealing the white undertail coverts. It is good at walking and running on the ground, with slow and steady steps when walking. It often wades in shallow water by the water, and can also climb on reed stems, or walk and rest on plants or leaves floating on the water. It is not good at flying, and generally rarely flies or swims. When forced to fly, it will not fly far and fall down. When flying, the two wings flap slowly, and the long legs hang behind, which looks clumsy. It is a resident bird, but there is a phenomenon of seasonal local migration as the habitat conditions change. In some areas, it will migrate south in winter.
Purple Swamphen is an omnivorous animal, mainly feeding on plants, eating the tender branches, leaves, roots, stems, flowers and seeds of aquatic and semi-aquatic plants, such as cattails, sedges, rice seedlings, sorrel and Polygonum seeds, and water lily tubers. Animal food accounts for a small part, including mollusks, leeches, small crabs, insects and their larvae, spiders, fish and fish eggs, frogs and frog eggs, lizards, snakes, birds and bird eggs and chicks, small rodents and carrion. It often forages by the water, on floating plants or in rice fields, and can grab and tear food with its front toes, or move stones and turn over plants with its beak.
The breeding season of Purple Swamphen is from April to July. The nest is built in reeds and water grass with dense aquatic plants. The nest is mostly placed on the reeds that have fallen on the water surface, or on the piles of dry reeds or water grass floating on the water surface between the reeds. It is also built on lily leaves floating on the water surface or on the mounds in the reeds. The nest is very hidden, disc-shaped, mainly composed of dry reed stems and leaves or other water grasses. The plants around the nest are often bent to form a canopy. The size of the nest: about 30 cm in outer diameter, 19-30 cm in inner diameter, 10-20 cm in height, and 3-10 cm in depth. One egg is laid every day, 3-7 eggs per nest, mostly 4-5 eggs. If an egg is lost, it can be replaced. The eggs are light yellow to reddish yellow with reddish brown spots. The size of the eggs is 45.7-54.6 mm × 34.2-37.2 mm, with an average of 50.5 mm × 35.7 mm. The incubation period is 23-27 days. The chicks are precocial and can leave the nest after staying in the nest for a few days. The parents and helpers incubate, feed and care for the chicks. They can find food by themselves at 10-14 days old, but can be fed for 25-40 days. They can live independently at 6-8 weeks old. They can grow flight feathers at 60 days old or more. They can start breeding at 1-2 years old. In some areas, they can lay 2 nests of eggs in one breeding season.
The purple moorhen nominate subspecies is only found in western and southern Yunnan and a few areas in Fujian in China. The number in China is extremely rare, and hunting should be strictly prohibited and protection should be paid attention to.
In 1868, Swinhoe collected purple moorhens in Xiamen and designated Xiamen as the model origin of the South China subspecies of purple moorhen. In 2021, technicians from the Longling Xiaoheishan Provincial Nature Reserve in Baoshan City, Yunnan Province, accidentally photographed a bird with a "little red hat" on its head and blue-purple feathers while patrolling. It was determined to be a purple moorhen of the genus Moorhen of the family Railidae, and it was first found in Longling County.
Listed in the 2012 Red List of Endangered Species of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) ver 3.1-Least Concern (LC).
The subspecies distributed in China is included in the "National List of Terrestrial Wildlife with Important Economic and Scientific Research Value" issued by the State Forestry Administration of China on August 1, 2000.
Listed in the second level of the "List of National Key Protected Wildlife in China".
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