Purple Gallinule

Recognition
A bright blue top half and a green bottom half. It has a white under-carriage. The legs are yellow.
Juvenile birds are brown in colur and lack the yellow legs of the adults.

Where seen
Seen in the mangroves behind Capt John Smith Loop, in the mangroves when boating to the Marker 34 restaurant and in the mangroves at the Ding Darling reserve. Seen a couple of times in the closed-in ponds along Bayshore Road. Often seen while driving slowly down Alligator Alley.

Jimmy’s notes
Looks a bit like a moorhen gone wrong. Walks on floating vegetation. The name of this species is derived from the Latin for chicken – gallinula.