Purple Gallinule, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, April 16, 2025

On April 14th I noticed several reports on the NC rare bird alert that the Purple Gallinule was “still here” in Mecklenburg County.  It was first discovered by Trevor Kienzle on the 13th – though I missed that post.  The bird was reported again on the 15th so it was apparently pretty reliable.  And the site was only about 2 hours away.  The chase was on!

Now it was time to do more research.  The Gallinule was feeding on aquatic vegetation on the Catawba River at the eBird hotspot called Walker’s Ferry Road Cove.  And one birder posted coordinates of the gravel lot where you should park, the coordinates where the bird was feeding, and the trail you take to get to the spot.  Excellent!  I reached out to Cleveland County birding buddy Bill Hooker to see if he needed the Gallinule for his Mecklenburg County list.  Not surprisingly a rarity like this would be new for his county list, so he was interested in coming along to look for the bird as well.

And there was one other factor that would help us with our chase.  I noticed that Bill’s friend Patty Masten had already seen the bird, so I asked if Bill could connect with Patty for any tips to find our target bird.  Patty offered us even more help – she would meet us at the parking area and take us to where she had the Gallinule.  Our odds of finding the bird just improved dramatically.

I was out of the house early on the 16th, and met Bill in Cleveland County by 7:30.  From there we car-pooled to Mecklenburg County and arrived at the parking area a bit after 8.  Patty was already waiting for us, and we instantly started our short walk down an eastward trail toward the Gallinule spot.  Along the way we met a birder coming back who had just seen the bird.  We picked up the pace a bit and soon reached the spot where Patty had seen our target.  And within seconds we all spotted the Purple Gallinule feeding amongst the vegetation.  Here’s a shot of the bed of vegetation in the distance - the Gallinule is at the blue arrow.

Although the Gallinule was visible the whole time we were there, we never saw much more than the neck and head of the bird.  Luckily the purple feathering and orange bill were conclusive field marks, even in the backlit conditions. 

Purple Gallinule was #328 for my NC state list.  My statebird map for Purple Gallinule is inserted below.  The light blue-shaded states are those where I’ve seen this species in its regular range.  Cross-hatched AR is the last state in its range where I’ve yet to see it. And now NC is the 4th state where I’ve seen it as a rarity (the dark blue-shaded states).