Gulf Coast Escape

Photo of American Purple Gallinule by Dale Knox, retrieved from iNaturalist.org.

Three years ago, I wrote a New Year's post about an American Purple Gallinule found in the Duluth area and subsequently added it to our collection of taxidermy mounts. At the time, I didn't have the full story on the unusual visitor from the Gulf Coast. I still don't - but I have since been able to put some pieces of the story together. 

Thankfully, the Minnesota Ornithologists' Union does a great job of housing over a century's-worth of data on bird observations in Minnesota. It appears that, prior to our observation, there had only been three other historical records and one recent record of this species for the state. The MOU voted in the observation report contributed by the Museum and the bird's donor back in 2019, and just like that we inserted ourselves into the limited history of American Purple Gallinules in Minnesota. 

If you're interested in learning more about the Gallinule in question, click on the link above to read my original post. You can also find our Gallinule in volume 91 of the MOU's The Loon, under Notes of Interest (page 91).