Family: Rallidae, Rails, Gallinules, Coots view all from this family

Description 11-13" (28-33 cm). A strikingly colored, chicken-sized 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.

Habitat Freshwater marshes with lily pads, pickerelweed, and other aquatic vegetation.

Nesting 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.

Range Breeds from southern Texas, Arkansas, and Carolinas south to Florida and Gulf Coast. Winters along Gulf Coast in Texas, Louisiana, and Florida.

Voice   Squawking and cackling; also guttural grunts.

Discussion This colorful bird is 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 turned up in California, southern Canada, Bermuda, and even South Africa.