The Story
I photographed this juvenile Purple Gallinule (Porphyrio martinica) at Finca La Esmeralda, near Santander de Quilichao in Cauca, Colombia. Juveniles are light brown with a green-bronze wash on the back and wings, and they take a while to grow into the purple-blue adult plumage. Adults can look dusky in low light, but the colored shield on the forehead still separates them from other gallinules. The species is resident across parts of Central America, the Caribbean and 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 1/250 sec, f/16, ISO 800, −1 EV. Santander de Quilichao’s mayor’s office promotes the town as “la ciudad de las aves,” the city of birds, and has held a yearly bird festival since 2020.
©2022 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