The Nature of Things

The Purple Gallinule is a favorite target bird of mine when I go birding around the wetlands in Southeast Texas in the summer. Here's the post I wrote about chasing it back in the summer of 2010. ( Note : Since this post appeared, the ABA has changed the name of the Common Moorhen to Common Gallinule.) *~*~*~* The  Purple Gallinule  is one of the most colorful members of a rather uncolorful family, the rails. Specifically, they are part of the order Gruiformes , family  Rallidae . It is a family with many extended relatives, including some rather famous ones like the Whooping Crane. Purple Gallinules have some much closer and more common relatives in the American Coot and the appropriately-named Common Moorhen. The gallinules share body-type and many lifestyle habits with these two birds. Common Moorhen. Note the very red bill with its white tip. The American Coot, on the other hand, features a white bill with a white frontal shield on the forehead. Both of these birds ar...