The Story
I photographed this Purple Gallinule (Porphyrio martinica) at the Malecón Cameguadua in Chinchiná, Caldas, Colombia on June 23, 2017. Its long toes spread its weight so it can walk across floating plants. It is an omnivorous ground feeder, eating a mix of plant and animal food. Its floating nest is hidden in dense vegetation along the shallow edges of lakes, rivers and marshes, and young birds stay on the territory to help raise their siblings. The Cameguadua reservoir in Chinchiná belongs to the power company CHEC and is fed by the Chinchiná and Campoalegre rivers.
I took this with a Canon EOS 70D and the EF400mm f/5.6L USM, at 1/2000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600. IUCN lists the Purple Gallinule as Least Concern with a stable population, and Chinchiná is part of the Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2011.
©2018 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