African Swamphen

Porphyrio madagascariensis (Latham, 1801)

African Swamphen, Porphyrio madagascariensis, is a rail found across Africa and Madagascar. It occurs in Egypt, sub-Saharan Africa and along the Nile to the Nile Delta, and is also present in parts of Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and coastal Mozambique. It is a mainly sedentary bird. Its back and scapulars are bronze green or green-blue, which helps separate it from similar swamphens. It uses freshwater and brackish ponds, slow rivers with reeds and sedges, marshes, swamps and seasonally flooded wetlands.

Order

Gruiformes

Family

Rallidae — Rails, Crakes & Coots

Breeding range

Africa: Africa and Madagascar