The African swamphen (''Porphyrio madagascariensis'') is a species of swamphen occurring in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

, Sub-Saharan Africa and

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. It used to be considered a subspecies of the purple swamphen, which it resembles, but with bronze green or green-blue back and scapulars. The African Swamphen is a mainly sedentary species that can be found in sub-Saharan Africa, including southern Africa, where it is sometimes locally common. It is found in northern and eastern Botswana, part of Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and the coast of Mozambique. In South Africa it is absent from the Northern Cape and the interior of the Eastern Cape. It has occurred as a vagrant in Israel with a record from Eilat in October 2015. The African swamphen has a preference for freshwater or brackish ponds, slow flowing rivers, especially those flanked by reeds (''Phragmites'') and sedges, marshes, swamps, it also occurs on seasonally flooded wetlands. The population is believed to be decreasing due to local disturbance and loss of habitat although it is not considered to be threatened.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:swamphen, African African swamphen African swamphen African swamphen