White swamphen
Porphyrio albus (Shaw, 1790)
Status not recordedbirdsExtinct
The white swamphen (Porphyrio albus) is a species in the family Rallidae, order Gruiformes. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia.
No freely licensed photo yet
Quick facts about the white swamphen
- Weight
- Not recorded
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- Not recorded
- Young per litter or clutch
- Not recorded
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
Where does the white swamphen live?
Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.
The white swamphen is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Is the white swamphen endangered?
No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.
How is the white swamphen classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderGruiformes
- familyRallidae
- genusPorphyrio
- SpeciesPorphyrio albus (Shaw, 1790)
Synonyms Fulica alba, Porhyrio albus, Porphyrio porphyrio albus, Porphyrio raperi
Other names and names in other languages (33)
- Lord Howe island swamphenEnglish
- Lord Howe swamphenEnglish
- White gallinuleEnglish
- polla blancaCatalan
- slípka bělaváCzech
- Hvid SultanhøneDanish
- Lord-Howe-PurpurhuhnGerman
- blanka porfirioEsperanto
- Calamón blancoSpanish
- valge-sultantaitEstonian
- valkosulttaanikanaFinnish
- Talève de Lord HoweFrench
- bijela sultankaCroatian
- Lord Howe-szigeti fúHungarian
- Pollo sultano di Lord HoweItalian
- ロードハウセイケイJapanese
- baltoji sultonvištėLithuanian
- Lord-HowepurperkoetDutch
- hvittakaheNorwegian
- modrzyk małyPolish
- camão-brancoPortuguese
- Белая султанкаRussian
- sultánka maláSlovak
- Sultanka sa ostrva Lord Hau (izumrla)Serbian
- vit purpurhönaSwedish
- Beyaz SazhorozuTurkish
- султанка білаUkrainian
- 新不列顛紫水雞Chinese
- Lord Howe-SumpfhuhnGerman
- caimão-brancoPortuguese
- galinhola-brancaPortuguese
- 新不列颠紫水鸡Chinese
- 羅豪島白水雞〔白水雞〕Chinese
Relatives of the white swamphen
Other species in the same genus Porphyrio.

Western swamphen
Porphyrio porphyrio

Takahē
Porphyrio hochstetteri

American purple gallinule
Porphyrio martinica
Gray-headed swamphen
Porphyrio poliocephalus

Allen's gallinule
Porphyrio alleni

Azure gallinule
Porphyrio flavirostris
CompareWhite swamphen vs Western swamphenWhite swamphen vs TakahēWhite swamphen vs American purple gallinuleWhite swamphen vs Gray-headed swamphen
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
Where does the white swamphen live?
Catalogue of Life checklists list the white swamphen for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.
What kind of animal is the white swamphen?
The white swamphen (Porphyrio albus) belongs to the family Rallidae in the order Gruiformes.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
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Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits · CC BY 4.0 · v1
Oliveira, B.F., São-Pedro, V.A., Santos-Barrera, G., Penone, C. & Costa, G.C. (2017) AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits. Scientific Data 4: 170123. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.123. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4644424.v5 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Shirey, V., Larsen, E., Doherty, A. et al. (2022) LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits. Scientific Data 9: 382. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01473-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19874602.v1 - Northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits (raw datasets) · CC BY 4.0 · 2024-12-17
Logghe, G., Batsleer, F., Maes, D. et al. (2025) An in-depth dataset of northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits. Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e146785. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e146785. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13379714 - ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles · CC BY 4.0 · v1-2
Oskyrko, O., Mi, C., Meiri, S. et al. (2024) ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data 11: 243. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03079-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24572683.v4 - Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits · CC BY 4.0 · 1.0-2022-06-17
Mull, C.G., Pacoureau, N., Pardo, S.A. et al. (2022) Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits and abundance time-series. Scientific Data 9: 559. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01655-1. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6656525 - SquamBase 1.0 - a dataset of squamate species traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0-dryad-v5
Meiri, S. (2024) SquamBase - a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography 33(4): e13812. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13812. Data: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t3b - TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe · CC BY 4.0 · 2.0
Chauvier, Y., Adde, A., Bergamini, A. et al. (2025) TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15063844 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). White swamphen (Porphyrio albus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/white-swamphen
“White swamphen (Porphyrio albus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/white-swamphen.
@misc{white_swamphen_2026,
title = {White swamphen (Porphyrio albus)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/white-swamphen},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}