---
title: "Caimão-comum"
description: "Porphyrio porphyrio — Aves. The western swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio) is a species of swamphen in the rail family Rallidae, one of the six species of purple swamphen."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/pt/animal/western-swamphen
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Caimão-comum

> Porphyrio porphyrio — Aves. The western swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio) is a species of swamphen in the rail family Rallidae, one of the six species of purple swamphen.

- Scientific name: *Porphyrio porphyrio*
- Category: `birds` (Aves)
- Habitats: `freshwater` (Lagos e rios)
- iNaturalist observations: 3839
- Wikidata: [Q187902](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q187902)
- iNaturalist taxon: [475028](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/475028)

## Names

- en: Western Swamphen
- de: Purpurhuhn
- es: Calamón
- fr: Talève sultane
- it: Pollo sultano comune
- nl: Purperkoet
- pt: Caimão-comum
- pl: Modrzyk

## Countries with the most observations

ES (1813), PT (687), FR (584), DZ (186), IT (73), MA (28), NL (27), GB (5)

## Summary

The western swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio) is a species of swamphen in the rail family Rallidae, one of the six species of purple swamphen. This chicken-sized bird, with its large feet, bright plumage and red bill and frontal shield is easily recognisable in its native range. It used to be considered the nominate subspecies of the purple swamphen, but is now recognised as a separate species. The western swamphen is found in wetlands in Spain (where the largest population lives), Portugal, southeastern France, Italy (Sardinia and Sicily) and northwestern Africa (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia).

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_swamphen

## Photo

![Caimão-comum](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/western-swamphen/medium.jpg)

Photo: Tero Linjama · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/63888568

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/western-swamphen?lang=pt` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).