[birdky] Purple Swamphen

I know how this report will be perceived but bear with me...

Location:???? Mt. Carmel Church Rd. on Wilson Creek
Observation date:???? 4/26/09

Notes:???? While driving on the back side of Bernheim Forest I spotted what 
appeared to be a Purple Gallinule. I did not see a red bill as it was 
pecking on the sandbar. I did see a very dark blue to black bird with very red 
legs dangling as the bird took to flight. Colleen and I immediately started 
digging through an older copy of National Geographic and could find nothing 
similar. We searched for 30 - 40 minutes but could not relocate the bird. It 
was 
after we got home and started going through other books when a casual mention 
of 
a Purple Swamphen with an illustration appeared in Sibley's Guide to Birds (p. 
154). This is without a doubt the bird I saw; Colleen was looking elsewhere. I 
did call Brainard Palmer-Ball to discuss the probability or lack thereof. I 
continued to research this for a couple of hours today and came to the same 
conclusion.
Number of species:???? 1

Purple Swamphen???? 1

Tom Becker

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Other related posts: