Australasian Swamphen
Torrens River, Adelaide City, March 2021.
Distinguished by their scarlet frontal shield and bill. Immature birds have a blackish red bill and duller feather colour.
Hasties Swamp, July 2020.
The Swamphen are a pretty common bird. In southwest WA the species has a sky blue breast in place of the deep purple-blue shown above.
Tarzali Lakes, January 2021.
As their name would suggest they live in reedy swamps, river margins and lakes. They are usually quiet but make the odd metallic cackling.
Torrens River, Adelaide City, March 2021.
From what I have seen in Adelaide they eat almost anything that people will give them…….you should not feed the birds BTW.
Hastie’s Swamp, September 2021.
When humans are not feeding them their diet normally consists of reed roots, seeds, eggs, small vertebrates, insects and molluscs.
Tarzali Lakes, January 2021.
As these birds walk or swim they usually flick their tail revealing their bright white under tail. The male and females both look alike.
Breeding is from August to February. They nest in the reeds and usually lay between 3 to 8 eggs.
Hastie’s Swamp, July 2022.
I rarely see these birds fly anything other than a few metres. So even though I do not normally take photos of the back of birds as they fly away from me…… I had to take a photo of this bird flying across Hastie’s Swamp.
They fly to escape danger and hang there legs below and behind. This one had just had an argument with another Swamphen.