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Black-backed Swamphen
Live sightings near you, the range map, bar charts of when it is seen, and Macaulay Library photos and recordings.
Black-backed Swamphen
Porphyrio indicus
The black-backed swamphen (Porphyrio indicus) is a species of swamphen occurring from southeast Asia to Sulawesi and Borneo. It used to be considered a subspecies of the purple swamphen, which it resembles, but has a large shield, black upperparts, and the side of the head is blackish.
It tends to migrate away from urbanization and other human activity. It lives in wetlands, preferring those with slow-flowing water.
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Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Porphyrio indicus in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 474334.