More Purple Swamphens

Dani, when you see a bird, whats the first thing(s) you look for to determine species? Is it the yellow tip bill or the orange on the cheek or ? I am looking at the two pics trying to see what would stand out and tell me quickly one way or the other.

Cool pics btw and good for you to go out and participate in the program. Some days it seems like 95% of the people on the world simply don't participate in a lot of potentially helpful endeavors. Personally I think your willlingness is a very positive plus. (Just don't step on anything that can bite ya...you know how I feel about this ;-)
 
The way I've got it figured Dani.
You could go to the "Gun Club" and try to shoot little orange clay discs that are supposed to mimic a birds flight.
OR
You can get into the swamp, see all the nature you could ask for, and pull the trigger on a real bird, that flies and
dies like a real bird.

You can't keep either of them, but I suppose you could stockplile the clays.
 
The biggest "difference" between the purple gallinule and the purple swamphen is the size difference. The purple Swamphen are HUGE. I watched an adult feeding a youngster and this youngster (didn't have the purdy colors of the adults) was every bit as big as an adult coot. So that is the main and easiest to tell difference. I guess my next look see to see which it is is the red face shield. Their legs aren't always visible but typically the head is. Big broad red face shield.

I talked to the biologist down south who is helping to keep track of the numbers for the pilot program about these birds and she said that there is some evidence to indicate that the purple swamphen actually preys upon purple gallinule nestlings (other nestlings as well, but especially the purple gallinule). They haven't concluded if that is true or not, but there is evidence that they seem to be more than opportunistic predators. So they really don't want them to increase in number if they can help it.

And Scott...you missed it...we were out hunting that area that weekend I shot the three purple swamphens and we heard this "crying" but sounded kind of croaking like. When we decided that it was a frog we started looking around for where the frog was and we found it. Big river frog perhaps...pretty...justsitting there...so one of us catches the frog (strangely enough) so we can look at him and his leg is caught on something. So I reach down to "undo" his leg from being caught (thinking it's caught on all the vegetation) and there is a white lipped snake attached to his leg. Eyes rolled back up in his head and he is NOT letting go. Startled the heck out of me when I reach down to pull his leg out of the grass and pull up a decent sized snake....we just let him go....and now we knew why he was "crying"...

Dani
 
MAN!! Now if I had been there pulling that frog up, I would have launched him into sub orbital flight the second I saw the snake...and then apologized for screamin like a little girl.. I hate surprises... especially those kind.
 
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