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| Female Grey-headed Swamphen |
Grey-headed swamphen (Porphyrio poliocephalus) is a species of swamphen or moorhen occurring from the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent to southern
China and northern Thailand. It used to be considered a subspecies of
the purple swamphen, but was elevated to full species status in 2015; today the purple swamphen is considered a superspecies and each of its six races are designated full species.
The male has an elaborate courtship display which is more like children playing catch-me-if-you-can
game. Their calls are also amusing as
they do not keep to any standard call sometimes cackling like hens,
sometimes hooting, sometimes hissing and shrieking. The male is seen to
entice a female by holding a piece of reed in his beaks and offering it
to females.The male is a glistening purple color and the female is a little duller than the male with greyish-purple color; both have a red patch on a bald head.
They forage on insects, mollusks, water beetles, and water-plant shoots. The nesting season is from June to September. The nest is a large pad of reed leaves on a floating mass or hidden inside
the reed beds. Three to six eggs (pale yellowish color and blotched or spotted with reddish brown patches) are laid at a time.
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