Geographic range:
Nearctic, Neotropic: Highly migratory species that breeds from
southern Texas, Arkansas, and Carolinas south to Florida and Gulf
Coast. Winters along Gulf Coast in Texas, Louisiana, and Florida south
to Argentina. In Mexico winters from Sonora, Tamaulipas south and
east to Chiapas and Quintana Roo.
Physical
characteristics: A strikingly colored, chicken-sized (28-33
cm) marsh bird. Purplish blue with green upperparts, white undertail
coverts, yellowish-green legs, red-and-yellow bill, and light blue
frontal shield. Immature buffy-brown, with greenish wings and dark
bill.
Food habits: Mostly seeds and green
plants matter and lesser quantities of aquatic invertebrates.
Reproduction: Female lays 6-10
pinkish-buff eggs with fine dark spots in a nest of dead stems and
leaves of water plants, placed on a floating tussock or in a clump
of sawgrass or thicket over water. Incubation takes in between 22
to 25 days.
Behavior: Often
seen walking on lily pads, supporting its weight on its very long
toes, and may even sometimes be seen climbing up into low bushes in
search of food. When walking or swimming, it constantly jerks its
head and tail. Its flight is slow and weak, but this has not prevented
individual birds from traveling far out of their normal range. They
have been reported in California, southern Canada, Bermuda, and even
South Africa.
Habitat: Freshwater marshes with lily pads, pickerelweed, and
other aquatic vegetation.
Biomes:
tropical and temperate coastal, freshwater lakes |
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