“Had an opportunity for close up images while the Purple Swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio viridis) was feeding (above). The iris is described as “chestnut to blood red” (Wells 1999).
“Generally I have seen blood red iris but this is on a ‘distance view’ – see above of the same bird showing this. When seeing it up close you can see that it has 2 colours – blood red centrally and chestnut on the outside. Wonder if this is a transition phase? Barry Taylor in ‘Rails: A Guide to Rails, Crakes, Gallinules and Coots of the World’ notes that juvenile birds have olive-brown iris while adults have red-brown iris.
“Above shows a close up of the frontal shield.”
Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS
Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia
18th October 2017
Location: Tambun, Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia
Habitat: Secondary growth near limestone hills