Purple
Swamphen Porphyrio porphyrio has been
split into five species by IOC 5.3 largely in accordance with Sangster 1998 and
Garcia & Trewick 2015 into 5 species. These splits will be followed by OSME
and means that Grey-headed Swamphen P.
poliocephalus is by far the main species in the Region, comprising the
nominate, caspius and seistanicus, though the validity of the
last two is still debated. Swamphens from Saudi Arabia now comprise both
breeding Grey-headed Swamphens in the Eastern Province and African Swamphen P. madagascariensis which is a Vvgrant
with two records. A record of an adult at KAUST near Jeddah in September 2013
remained for at least three weeks before being killed by a car and two together
at Dhahran percolation pond in December 2014 for several days.
References
Garcia-Ramirez, JC and SA Trewick. 2015. Dispersal and
speciation in purple swamphens (Rallidae: Porphyrio). Auk 132: 140-155.
Sangster, G. 1998. Purple Swamp-hen is a complex of
species. Dutch Birding 20:13-22.
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| Grey-headed Swamphen - DNA sample analysed to confirm the subspecies |