First American Purple Gallinule for the Indian Ocean

American Purple Gallinule Porphyrio martinica (Francis Godley)

SBRC has recorded many remarkable records over the years. A contender for the most remarkable ever is a report of an American Purple Gallinule Porphyrio martinica at North-east Point in September 2022. The bird was seen and photographed by Francis Godley. The record has now been accepted by SBRC as not only the first for Seychelles, but the first for the Indian Ocean and the most easterly record for this species.

American Purple Gallinule breeds in USA and Mexico and is a partial migrant south to Brasil, Argentina, and Paraguay, It is a vagrant to the Atlantic islands of St. Helena and Ascension and has reached the African coast. But what on earth was one doing in Seychelles?