The Story
I photographed this juvenile Purple Gallinule (Porphyrio martinica) at Boyapesca on Lago de Tota, near Aquitania, Boyacá, Colombia, at about 3,020 meters. Young birds are light brown with hints of green-bronze on the wings and back and white undertail coverts, quite unlike the purple-blue adults. The species is a swamphen found across the Americas, from the southeastern United States through Central America and the Caribbean, and it also turns up in South America. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I used a Canon R5 with the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender for this one, at 1/1500 sec, f/16, ISO 3200. Lago de Tota, in the Sugamuxi Province of eastern Boyacá, is Colombia’s largest lake and the source of the Upía River.
©2021 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Purple Gallinule (Porphyrio martinica) belongs to the family Rallidae (Rails, Gallinules, and Coots) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2025), with the population trend listed as stable. Source: IUCN Red List