This chicken-sized bird, with its large feet, bright plumage and red bill and frontal shield is easily recognisable in its native range.

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).

[2] The western swamphen was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.

[5] Linnaeas specified the type location as Asia, Africa but this has been restricted to the lands bordering the western Mediterranean.

[6] The western swamphen is now one of 12 species placed in the genus Porphyrio that was introduced in 1760 by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson.

Despite being clumsy in flight, it can fly long distances and is a good swimmer, especially for a bird without webbed feet.

Western swamphens are generally seasonal breeders, correlating with peak rainfall in many places, or summer in more temperate climes.

[10] The western swamphen prefers wet areas with high rainfall, swamps, lake edges and damp pastures.

[11] As a result of reintroduction schemes and protection of both the species and its habitat, the western swamphen has since recovered.

[13] It was extirpated from Sicily in 1957,[14] effectively restricting its Italian range to Sardinia where the population was 450–600 breeding pairs in 1999.

[16] When protected, western swamphens are able to thrive in human-managed habitats,[11] and in some places they live in paddy fields, resulting in conflicts with farmers as they can be destructive to the rice.