BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 21, 2021
With feathers the color of a tropical sea and giant yellow feet, a warm-weather bird called a purple gallinule was spotted in southern Maine on Jan. 16, hundreds of miles from home. On the same weekend, a second purple gallinule showed up in Bar Harbor, where it was captured and transported to a nearby wildlife rehabilitator. A species that typically winters in southern and tropical swamps, these birds were likely carried to Maine by strong winds, said Doug Hitchcox, naturalist at the Maine Audubon. At least 30 sightings of purple gallinules have been recorded in Maine since the late 1860s.