Howard and Darlene Rash have had a purple gallinule in and about the canal side of their Flour Bluff yard for several days. This marsh bird is an exotic, tropical type. Its plumage is many-colored, from the greenish bronze body to the shimmering, iridescent purple of its head, to the red on its upper bill, surrounded by an ethereal blue frontal shield. On delicate, long-toed, yellow feet it walks about on the fresh water marshes along the Gulf coast and up the East Coast.
Gallinules manage to migrate great distances in spite of a feeble-appearing flight.
During migration they often crash in an urban backyard with a lily pond where they rest among the foliage until ready to continue their journey. Sometimes they blunder into an open garage and then attract much attention when the owner, trying to help them escape, sees their fine coloring. Several decoy nests may be built nearby. In wet years gallinules nest locally. One year a community of nesting purple gallinules was found in a marsh on the outskirts of Riviera, south of Kingsville.