Allen's Gallinule
Porphyrio alleni Thompson, 1842 (1, 2)
Photo © By Martien Brand from Mariënberg, The Netherlands - 37907 Afrikaans Purperhoen / Allen's Gallinule, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9732844
STATUS
Africa. Monotypic.
OVERVIEW
Known as a prodigious traveller with records from South Georgia, Finland, Azores and Mauritius to name a few. But only one of our three was healthy.
RECORDS
1). 1902 Norfolk/Suffolk Off Hopton-on-Sea, Suffolk, juvenile, caught exhausted on a fishing boat, 1st January.
(J. H. Gurney, jun., Field 8th Feb., 1902: 183; J. H. Gurney, jun., Zoologist 1902: 98-99; J. H. Gurney, jun., Field 22nd Feb., 1902: 281; J. H. Gurney, jun., Zoologist 102: 150; J. H. Gurney, jun., Zoologist 1902: 198, corr.; J. H. Gurney, jun., Zoologist 1904: 219; Patterson, 1905; H. F. Witherby & N. F. Ticehurst, British Birds 2: 146-147; Witherby, 1920-24; BOURC (1974), Ibis 116: 578; R. Hudson, British Birds 67: 405-413).
2). 2002 Dorset Portland: Weston, juvenile to first-winter, moribund, 10th February, photo; specimen now at Natural History Museum, Tring.
(M. Cade, Birding World 15 (2): 58-59, plates 1-3; Birding World 15 (12): 512, photo; M. J. Rogers and the Rarities Committee, British Birds 96: 565, plate 346; Dorset Bird Report 2002: photo; BOURC (2005) Ibis 147: 246-250).
3). 2017 Outer Hebrides Hirta, St Kilda, 2CY, male, found dead, 26th March, photo, DNA analysis.
(W. T. S. Miles, J. G. Pilkington, R. Riddington & J. M. Collinson, Scottish Birds 37: 279-283, plates 222-225; C. Holt and the Rarities Committee, British Birds 111: 568).
