Australasian Swamphen, Victoria, Australia

(Click image to enlarge)

The Australasian swamphen (Porphyrio melanotus) is a socially complex bird found in Oceania. Unlike many other wetland birds, it is highly opportunistic and adaptable, thriving in both natural and human-modified environments. Its diet reflects this adaptability. Australasian swamphens are mainly herbivores, eating various vegetation including leaves, stems, shoots, seeds of grasses, sedges, and crop plants. They also eat insects, spiders, earthworms, and occasionally small lizards, frogs, and the young of other nestling bird species.

Australasian swamphens can fly great distances at sea and are thought to have introduced themselves into from Australia into New Zealand, where they are commonly known as the pūkeko, about 1000 years ago. They are currently found in eastern Indonesia (the Moluccas, Aru and Kai Islands), Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Australia.

Swamphens exhibit a complex mating system, where both sexes mate with multiple partners, and groups typically consist of three to seven breeding males and one or two breeding females. These females lay their eggs in a single nest, resulting in a rare avian breeding system where multiple females contribute eggs to the same clutch and provide collective parental care. Each female's eggs differ in colour and size, which allows individual recognition within the shared nest.