The Zoochat Photographic Guide to Rails and allies

[Chlidonias]

Ecuadorian Rail Rallus aequatorialis
Two subspecies: aequatorialis and meyerdeschauenseei

This species has until recently been included within the Virginia Rail R. limicola of North America, but there is quite some geographical distance between the two populations.


R. l. aequatorialis is from southwest Colombia, and the Ecuadorian Andes.

R. l. meyerdeschauenseei is from coastal Peru.



This species is not represented in the Zoochat galleries.



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Western Water Rail Rallus aquaticus
Three subspecies typically recognised: aquaticus, hibernans, korejewi.

The nominate subspecies aquaticus is represented in the Zoochat galleries.


Until recently the Eastern Water Rail R. indicus was also treated as a subspecies.


R. a. hibernans was from Iceland but probably became extinct around 1965 due to habitat loss.

R. a. aquaticus is from western Eurasia, south to North Africa and east to the Caspian Sea.

R. a. korejewi is from central Asia, from the Aral Sea and Lake Balkhash to Iran, Kashmir, and western China; possibly winters as far east as coastal China. Other subspecies which may be split off from this range are arjanicus in Iran, and deserticola and tsaidamensis in China.



Both photos below by @Lafone in the wild, UK - subspecies aquaticus.

Water Rail, wild, UK - ZooChat

Water Rail (Wild) UK - ZooChat



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Austral Rail Rallus antarcticus
Monotypic, but has been treated as being conspecific with the Virginia Rail R. limicola in the past, or more recently with the Bogota Rail R. semiplumbeus (which was itself split from R. limicola).



Found in the far south of South America, in southern Chile and southern Argentina, as well as in the Falkland Islands.



This species is not represented in the Zoochat galleries.



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African Rail Rallus caerulescens
Monotypic



Found in subsaharan Africa, largely in the east and south of the continent.



This species is not represented in the Zoochat galleries.



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Clapper Rail Rallus crepitans
Between eight and thirteen subspecies recognised: belizensis, caribaeus, coryi, crepitans, grossi, insularum, leucophaeus, limnotis, manglecola, pallidus, saturatus, scottii, waynei. These are really messy and many should probably be combined. Below I have eight subspecies, plus note the other five where they are combined.

The subspecies waynei (probably) is represented in the Zoochat galleries.


R. c. caribaeus is from the Caribbean islands, from Cuba and Jamaica to the Lesser Antilles. The subspecies R. c. leucophaeus from the Isle of Pines (Cuba), R. c. limnotis from Puerto Rico, and R. c. manglecola from Antigua are sometimes separated.

R. c. coryi is endemic to The Bahamas.

R. c. crepitans is from the eastern USA from coastal Connecticut S to NE North Carolina.

R. c. insularum is found in the Florida Keys.

R. c. pallidus is from the coastal Yucatan area (Mexico and Belize). The subspecies R. c. grossi from Quintana Roo (Mexico) and R. c. belizensis from the Punta Ycacos Lagoon in Belize are best included in here also.

R. c. saturatus is from the Gulf coast, from Alabama (USA) to Tamaulipas (Mexico).

R. c. scottii is from coastal Florida (USA).

R. c. waynei is from coastal North Carolina to north-east Florida (USA).



Photo by @BerdNerd at the Outer Banks Wildlife Shelter (USA) - probably the subspecies waynei.

Clapper Rail (Rallus crepitans) - ZooChat

 

[Chlidonias]

King Rail Rallus elegans
Two subspecies: elegans and ramsdeni

The nominate subspecies elegans is represented in the Zoochat galleries.


R. e. elegans is found on the eastern side of the North American mainland, in the extreme southeast of Canada and down the eastern USA, wintering south to Mexico.

R. e. ramsdeni is endemic to Cuba.



Photo by @jbnbsn99 in the wild, USA - subspecies elegans.

King Rail - ZooChat



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Eastern Water Rail Rallus indicus
Monotypic. Formerly (still, by some) treated as a subspecies of the Western Water Rail Rallus aquaticus.



Found in northeastern Asia, from northern Mongolia across to north Japan; winters to the south as far as Assam and northern Indochina.



This species is not represented in the Zoochat galleries.



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Virginia Rail Rallus limicola
Two subspecies normally recognised (if the Ecuadorian Rail Rallus aequatorialis is split, as I have followed): friedmanni and limicola.

The nominate subspecies limicola is represented in the Zoochat galleries.


R. l. friedmanni is found in the mountains from central Mexico to central Guatemala.

R. l. limicola is found from southern Canada and through most of the USA, wintering as far south as Mexico.



Photo by @Ituri in the wild, USA - subspecies limicola.

Virginia Rail - ZooChat



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Mangrove Rail Rallus longirostris
Eight subspecies normally recognized.


R. l. berryorum is from coastal Honduras.

R. l. crassirostris is from coastal Brazil from the Amazon estuary to Santa Catarina.

R. l. cypereti is from the coasts of southwest Colombia through Ecuador to northwest Peru.

R. l. dillonripleyi is from the coast of northeast Venezuela.

R. l. longirostris is from the coasts of Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.

R. l. margaritae is from Margarita Island (off Venezuela).

R. l. phelpsi is from extreme notheast Colombia to northwestern Venezuela.

R. l. pelodramus is from Trinidad.



This species is not represented in the Zoochat galleries.



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Madagascar Rail Rallus madagascariensis
Monotypic.



Endemic to eastern Madagascar.



This species is not represented in the Zoochat galleries.

 

[Chlidonias]

Ridgway's Rail Rallus obsoletus
Four subspecies normally recognized.

The subspecies levipes is represented in the Zoochat galleries.


R. o. beldingi is from Baja California (Mexico). The subspecies R. o. magdalenae from Santa Margarita Island is sometimes separated.

R. o. levipes is from coastal California to northern Baja California (Mexico).

R. o. obsoletus is from central California (mainly in San Francisco Bay; USA).

R. o. yumanensis is from southeast California and southern Arizona (USA) and northwestern Mexico. The Mexican subspecies R. o. nayaritensis (from Nayarit) and R. o. rhizophorae (from Sonora) are sometimes separated.



Photo by @Zoological Point at Living Coast Discovery Center (USA) - subspecies levipes (the Light-footed Rail).

Rallus obsoletus - ZooChat



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Bogota Rail Rallus semiplumbeus
Two subspecies normally recognized.


R. s. peruvianus is known only from the type specimen and (despite the subspecific name) is of unknown origin.

R. s. semiplumbeus is from the Colombian Andes.



This species is not represented in the Zoochat galleries.



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Mexican or Aztec Rail Rallus tenuirostris
Monotypic.



Endemic to the mountains of central Mexico, where it inhabits freshwater marshes.



This species is not represented in the Zoochat galleries.



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Plain-flanked Rail Rallus wetmorei
Monotypic.



Enemic to coastal Venezuela.



This species is not represented in the Zoochat galleries.

 

[Chlidonias]

The "Porphyrio" clade.


This clade contains a single genus, Porphyrio.

The number of species in the genus has been widely debated due to the "Porphyrio porphyrio" complex which is found across the Old World in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia, and the Pacific Islands. At its most restricted this complex is treated as a single species (the Purple Swamphen P. porphyrio) with multiple subspecies, and at the other extreme with anywhere up to eight extant species. Recent genetic studies show that the species is indeed not monophyletic, and so here I treat "P. porphyrio" as six separate species, following the BOW and other checklists.

In total I have listed ten extant species of Porphyrio in this thread, of which eight are represented by photographs in the Zoochat galleries.



I have placed the species slightly out of alphabetical order, so that the "Porphyrio porphyrio" complex are all grouped together (the last six species below). The species which are represented in the Zoochat galleries are marked by asterisks in the following list:

*Allen's Gallinule Porphyrio alleni
Azure Gallinule Porphyrio flavirostris
*South Island Takahe Porphyrio hochstetteri
*American Purple Gallinule Porphyrio martinicus

*Black-backed Swamphen Porphyrio indicus
*African Swamphen Porphyrio madagascariensis
*Australasian Swamphen Porphyrio melanotus
*Grey-headed Swamphen Porphyrio poliocephalus
*Western Swamphen Porphyrio porphyrio
Philippine Swamphen Porphyrio pulverulentus




As well as the living species of Porphyrio, there are a number of species from oceanic islands which are known to have become extinct since the arrival of humans to those islands. Some species are known from historical documents or specimens (i.e. they survived on the uninhabited islands until the arrival of Europeans) but others are known only from subfossil remains, having been wiped out in the last few thousand years by pre-European colonists.


Lord Howe Swamphen Porphyrio albus
Recorded in the living state only in the two years spanning 1788 to 1790 (the island was uninhabited before European discovery), but believed to have already been hunted to extinction by sealers and whalers before settlement in 1834. There are two surviving skins (in the Natural History Museum of Vienna, and in Liverpool's World Museum), both of which are predominantly white in colour. Contemporary records indicate that the species was variable in colour, from entirely blue through to entirely white.

Reunion Swamphen Porphyrio caerulescens
Technically a hypothetical species as it is known only from six historical records and not from any physical remains. However it is generally accepted as a genuine species name. The reports date between c.1669 and 1742, with the bird described as having entirely blue plumage and red legs and bill.

New Caledonian Swamphen Porphyrio kukwiedei
Known only from pre-European remains, apart for one possible report from 1860 which simply mentioned turkey-sized birds living in marshes on the island. The remains from subfossil deposits suggest a bird almost the size of the extant South Island Takahe Porphyrio hochstetteri.

North Island Takahe or Moho Porphyrio mantelli
Known only from pre-European remains, apart for one probable report from 1894 of a large blue bird caught by a surveyor's dog which Maori elders recognised as being a Moho; the skin was kept privately but has since been lost. This species and the extant South Island Takahe Porphyrio hochstetteri appear to have derived from separate colonisation events of swamphens to New Zealand, although they were considered to be the same species until 1996. The North Island species stood considerably taller than the South Island species (which is now the largest living species of rail) but probably weighed about the same as they were less bulky.

Huahine Swamphen Porphyrio mcnabi
Known only from pre-European remains.

Marquesas Swamphen Porphyrio paepae
Known for certain only from pre-European remains, but a takahe-like bird depicted in a 1902 painting by Paul Gauguin may represent the bird in the living state, and Thor Heyerdahl reported seeing a ground-dwelling bird on Hiva Oa in 1937 which may conceivably have been this species (in the book "Fatu-Hiva: Back to Nature").

Still-undescribed species of Porphyrio are known from subfossil remains from the Marianas, New Ireland, Solomon Islands, Cook Islands, and Norfolk Island.

 

[Chlidonias]

Allen's Gallinule Porphyrio alleni
Monotypic.

Sometimes placed in Gallinula or Porphyrula.



Found throughout most of subsaharan Africa, as well as in Madagascar, the Comoro Islands, and Mauritius.



Photo by @Jurek7 at Best Zoo (Netherlands)

https://www.zoochat.com/community/media/allens-gallinule-at-bestzoo.671608/



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Azure Gallinule Porphyrio flavirostris
Monotypic.

Sometimes placed in Gallinula or Porphyrula.



Found throughout most of South America as far south as the northern border of Argentina.



This species is not represented in the Zoochat galleries.



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South Island Takahe Porphyrio hochstetteri
Monotypic

Originally placed in the genus Notornis.



Probably once found throughout the South Island of New Zealand, but by the time of European arrival restricted to a relict population in the mountains of Fiordland in the southwest. Today there are also managed populations on various offshore islands.

Formerly the species was considered to be conspecific with the (extinct) North Island Takahe or Moho Porphyrio mantelli, but physical and genetic differences show them to have been derived from two independant colonisation events by flying ancestors.



Photo by @Chlidonias on Tiritiri Matangi island (New Zealand)

takahe (Porphyrio hochstetteri) - ZooChat


Photo by @Chlidonias at the Otago Museum (New Zealand), showing the massive difference in skeletal proportions of the Takahe (on left) and Pukeko Porphyrio melanotus (on right).

Comparison of Takahe and Pukeko skeletons, Otago Museum - ZooChat



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American Purple Gallinule Porphyrio martinicus
Monotypic.

Sometimes placed in Gallinula or Porphyrula.



Found from the eastern USA south as far as northern Argentina.



Photo by @Mr Wrinkly at Toronto Zoo (Canada)

Purple Gallinule - ZooChat


Photo by @ralph in the wild, Mexico - juvenile bird.

Juvenile American purple gallinule (Porphyrio martinicus) - ZooChat

 

[Chlidonias]

All the species in this post are of the "Porphyrio porphyrio" complex, variously treated as being either one species found throughout the Old World, or up to eight species. Recent genetic studies all show that "Porphyrio porphyrio" is not monophyletic and is instead comprised of several distinct lineages.



HBW Alive (when it was still online) included all as a single species, writing "Races madagascariensis, pulverulentus and poliocephalus (incorporating all remaining races except nominate) have at times been considered separate species; melanotus and bellus, too, may be separate species. Unfortunately, however, the degree of variation within these groups of taxa makes a consistent phenotypic characterization problematic. Thorough evaluation of all taxa, involving morphometrics, plumages, vocalizations and genetics, seems the safest way forward in defining species limits in this complex."

They listed 13 subspecies for Porphyrio porphyrio, namely:
P. p. porphyrio (Western Swamphen) of southwest Europe and northwest Africa (i.e. the western Mediterranean).
P. p. madagascariensis (African Swamphen) of Egypt, subsaharan Africa, and Madagascar.
P. p. caspius of the Caspian Sea, northwest Iran, and Turkey.
P. p. seistanicus of Iraq and south Iran to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northwest India.
P. p. poliocephalus (Grey-headed Swamphen) of south Asia (India and Sri Lanka through Bangladesh, Andamans, and the Nicobars) to Yunnan and north Thailand.
P. p. viridis (Indochinese Swamphen) of mainland southeast Asia.
P. p. indicus (Sunda Swamphen) of the Greater Sundas and Sulawesi.
P. p. pulverulentus (Philippine Swamphen) of the Philippines.
P. p. pelewensis of the Palau Islands.
P. p. melanopterus of the Moluccas and Lesser Sundas to New Guinea.
P. p. bellus of southwestern Australia.
P. p. melanotus (Australasian Swamphen) of Australia and New Zealand.
P. p. samoensis of the Pacific Islands, from the Admiralty Islands south to New Caledonia and east to Samoa.



The Birds of the World website (which replaced HBW Alive) takes a more splitty approach, and recognises six full species:

*Western Swamphen Porphyrio porphyrio of southwest Europe and northwest Africa (i.e. the western Mediterranean).

*African Swamphen Porphyrio madagascariensis of Africa and Madagascar.

*Grey-headed Swamphen Porphyrio poliocephalus of the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent across to Peninsular Malaysia; with three subspecies (seistanicus, poliocephalus, viridis - the latter is more usually placed under Porphyrio indicus).

*Black-backed Swamphen Porphyrio indicus of the Greater Sundas to Sulawesi and the southern Philippines.

*Philippine Swamphen Porphyrio pulverulentus of the Philippines and the Talaud Islands.

*Australasian Swamphen Porphyrio melanotus of the Moluccas and Lesser Sundas east to Australia and New Zealand; with five subspecies (melanopterus, pelewensis, melanotus, bellus, samoensis).



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Black-backed Swamphen Porphyrio indicus
Treated as monotypic by BOW but it is more typical to include the subspecies viridis under this species (instead of under Porphyrio poliocephalus as BOW does).

Both subspecies are represented in the Zoochat galleries.


P. i. indicus is found in the Greater Sundas (Sumatra, Java, Borneo) to Sulawesi and the southern Philippines.

P. i. viridis is found in mainland southeast Asia, from southern Myanmar to southern Indochina, and south to Peninsular Malaysia.



Photo by @Chlidonias at Bukittinggi Zoo (Sumatra) - subspecies indicus.

purple gallinules (Porphyrio porphyrio) - ZooChat


Photo by @Nick@Amsterdam at the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park (Malaysia) - subspecies viridis.

Purple Swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio) - ZooChat



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African Swamphen Porphyrio madagascariensis
Monotypic



Found in eastern and southern Africa, Madagascar, and with an isolated population in Egypt (separated from the rest by the Sahara Desert).



Photo by @alexkant at Meir Segals Garden University Zoo (Israel)

Purple swamphen/ Porphyrio porphyrio madagascariensis - ZooChat



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Australasian Swamphen Porphyrio melanotus
About five subspecies generally recognised: bellus, melanopterus, melanotus, pelewensis, samoensis. Other subspecies which have been used include caledonicus, palliatus and vitiensis.

The subspecies bellus, melanotus and samoensis are represented in the Zoochat galleries.


P. m. bellus is from southwest Australia. This has sometimes been treated as a full species on the basis of its distinct colouration from the birds in eastern and northern Australia.

P. m. melanopterus is found in southeast Sulawesi, the Moluccas and Lesser Sundas, and the New Guinea region. The population in Sulawesi has sometimes been treated as a separate subspecies, P. m. palliatus.

P. m. melanotus is found in northern and eastern Australia, Tasmania, islands in the Tasman Sea, New Zealand, and the Chatham Islands.

P. m. pelewensis is from the Palau Islands.

P. m. samoensis is from the Pacific Islands, from the Admiralty Islands south to New Caledonia and east to Samoa. At times the New Caledonia birds have been separated as caledonicus and the Fiji birds as vitiensis.



Photo by @Chlidonias in the wild, Australia - subspecies bellus.

Purple gallinule (Porphyrio porphyrio bellus) - ZooChat


Photo by @LaughingDove in the wild, Australia - subspecies bellus, showing well the bright blue plumage of the face and throat which are distinctive in this subspecies.

SW Australian Purple Swamphen - Herdsman Lake - ZooChat


Photo by @Hix in the wild, Australia - subspecies melanotus.

Australian Swamphen - ZooChat


Photo by @Chlidonias at Nga Manu Nature Reserve (New Zealand) - subspecies melanotus of the New Zealand form (locally called Pukeko) which is believed to have only colonised the country from Australia within the last 300 to 500 years but which has developed distinctive social groupings not found in Australian birds.

Pukeko (Porphyrio porphyrio melanotus) - ZooChat


Photo by @Chlidonias in the wild, New Zealand - subspecies melanotus with chick.

Pukeko and chick (Porphyrio melanotus) - ZooChat


Photo by @Hix in the wild, Niue - subspecies samoensis.

Purple Swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio) - ZooChat


Photo by @Hix in the wild, New Caledonia - subspecies samoensis, but birds in New Caledonia have at times been treated as a distinct subspecies, caledonicus.

Australasian Swamphen - ZooChat


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Grey-headed Swamphen Porphyrio poliocephalus
Two subspecies: poliocephalus and seistanicus. The BOW also includes viridis under this species (instead of under Porphyrio indicus).

Both subspecies are represented in the Zoochat galleries.


P. p. poliocephalus is found throughout the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka, to Yunnan (China) and northern Thailand, and on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

P. p. seistanicus is found from southeast Turkey to the Caspian Sea, northwest Iran and Iraq, to Pakistan and northwest India. The subspecies caspius is included here.



Photo by @Terry Thomas in the wild, Sri Lanka - subspecies poliocephalus.

Purple swamphen - ZooChat


Photo by @Chlidonias in the wild, Yunnan (China) - also subspecies poliocephalus although the head is not actually grey in this part of the range.

Grey-headed Swamphen (Porphyrio poliocephalus) - ZooChat


Photo by @fofo at the Tehran Zoo (Iran) - subspecies seistanicus.

purple gallinule(tehran zoo) - ZooChat



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Western Swamphen Porphyrio porphyrio
Monotypic



Found in a relatively small area in the western Mediterranean region (southwest Europe and northwest Africa).



Photo by @Mo Hassan at Prague Zoo (Czech Republic).

Western purple swamphen - ZooChat



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Philippine Swamphen Porphyrio pulverulentus
Monotypic



Found in the Philippines and the Talaud Islands.



This species is not represented in the Zoochat galleries.

 

[Chlidonias]

The "Rallina" clade.


This clade contains just two genera, with seven species between them. The genus Gymnocrex contains three species, while Rallina contains four species.


The genus Rallicula, with four species endemic to the mountains of New Guinea, was formerly included here (indeed, it had even been merged into Rallina) but a genetic study published in 2020 (Phylogenomic Reconstruction Sheds Light on New Relationships and Timescale of Rails (Aves: Rallidae) Evolution) found that this genus actually belonged in the flufftail family Sarothruridae and not in Rallidae.


The species in this clade are largely distributed through the islands of the Indonesian archipelago, but some also extend west across mainland Asia as far as India, and one species is distributed as far east as Australia.


Only one species is represented in the Zoochat galleries, the Red-legged Crake Rallina fasciata.

 

[Chlidonias]

Gymnocrex
Three species, none of which are represented in the Zoochat galleries.



Bare-eyed Rail Gymnocrex plumbeiventris
Two subspecies: hoeveni and plumbeiventris


G. p. hoeveni is from the Aru Islands and southern New Guinea.

G. p. plumbeiventris is from the northern Moluccas, the west Papuan Islands, New Guinea, and New Ireland.



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Blue-faced Rail Gymnocrex rosenbergii
Monotypic



From Sulawesi, the Togian Islands, and Peleng Island.



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Talaud Rail Gymnocrex talaudensis
Monotypic



From the Talaud Islands.

 

[Chlidonias]

Rallina
Four species, of which one species is represented in the Zoochat galleries.




Andaman Crake Rallina canningi
Monotypic.



Endemic to the Andaman Islands.



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Slaty-legged Crake Rallina eurizonoides
Seven subspecies: alvarezi, amauroptera, eurizonoides, formosana, minahasa, sepiaria, telmatophila.


R. e. alvarezi is from the Batan Islands in the Philippines.

R. e. amauroptera is from India; wintering in Sri Lanka.

R. e. eurizonoides is from the Philippines and the Palau Islands.

R. e. formosana is from Taiwan.

R. e. minahasa is from Sulawesi and the Sula Islands.

R. e. sepiaria is from the Ryukyu Islands.

R. e. telmatophila is from southeast Asia, from Myanmar and Thailand to Vietnam and southern China; wintering as far south as Sumatra and Java.



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Red-legged Crake Rallina fasciata
Monotypic.



Found from southern Myanmar eastwards to the Philippines and Greater Sundas, and also further to the Lesser Sundas and Moluccas.



Photo by @LaughingDove in the wild, Singapore

Red-legged Crake - Singapore Botanic Gardens - ZooChat



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Red-necked Crake Rallina tricolor
Treated as monotypic by HBW and BOW. Subspecies otherwise recognised include tricolor (over most of the range), convicta, laeta, maxima, robinsoni and victa.



Found from the Moluccas and Lesser Sundas through New Guinea to Queensland (Australia).

 

[Chlidonias]

The "Zapornia" clade.


Current Rallidae taxonomies are based on a 2014 paper by Garcia-R et al ("Deep global evolutionary radiation in birds: Diversification and trait evolution in the cosmopolitan bird family Rallidae"), which divided the family into the clades I am presenting in this thread. The clade of this post was called by them "the Porzana clade" because it contained a large number of the species in that genus. However their study showed that Porzana as then recognised was very much not monophyletic - indeed, they broke the species up between five different clades - and ironically the "true" Porzana (i.e. the first-named species and its relatives) were actually related to coots and gallinules. The species which remained in their "Porzana" clade were placed in a new genus, Zapornia, hence the name I have given the clade here.

The paper further showed that the genus Amaurornis was also a composite of unrelated taxa, with some species actually belonging to Zapornia.

Note that while HBW Alive split Zapornia, the current BOW only mentions this genus as "proposed" and retains all the species where they were despite the genetic evidence.



There are ten extant species in the genus Zapornia, of which five are represented in the Zoochat galleries (the African Black Crake Z. flavirostra, the Ruddy-breasted Crake Z. fusca, the Little Crake Z. parva, the Baillon's Crake Z. pusilla, and the Spotless Crake Z. tabuensis). Of the ten species, Z. akool and Z. flavirostra were formerly in the genus Amaurornis, and the rest were (usually) placed in Porzana.

Brown Crake Zapornia akool
Henderson Crake Zapornia atra
Black-tailed Crake Zapornia bicolor
Black Crake Zapornia flavirostra
Ruddy-breasted Crake Zapornia fusca
Sakalava Rail Zapornia olivieri
Little Crake Zapornia parva
Band-bellied Crake Zapornia paykullii
Baillon's Crake Zapornia pusilla
Spotless Crake Zapornia tabuensis




As well as the living species of Zapornia, there are a number of species endemic to oceanic islands which are known to have become extinct since the arrival of humans to those islands. Some species are known from historical documents or specimens (i.e. they survived on the uninhabited islands until the arrival of Europeans) but others are known only from subfossil remains, having been wiped out in the last few thousand years by pre-European colonists. Of the many species which were probably once found on islands across the Pacific, only one still survives, the Henderson Island Crake Zapornia atra.


St Helena Crake Zapornia astrictocarpa
Not recorded in life (known only from subfossil deposits) but the island was uninhabited until the arrival of Europeans in 1502. The species was probably wiped out by introduced rats.

Kosrae Crake Zapornia monasa
From Kosrae Island in the Caroline Islands (in Micronesia). There are two known specimens, collected in 1827; probably became extinct between the 1830s and 1840s when rats arrived on the island from whaling ships.

Miller's Rail Zapornia nigra
From Tahiti; known only from an illustration from Cook's second voyage (1772-75) [a second painting was probably just based on the original illustration, as were later written descriptions].

Laysan Rail Zapornia palmeri
First recorded in 1828 but not described for another sixty years. Rabbits were introduced to the island in 1903 and destroyed all the vegetation, resulting in the elimination of the rail by c.1923. However some rails had been earlier introduced to Midway Atoll. The rabbits on Laysan were exterminated in 1923 and the vegetation recovered, but unfortunately no rails were returned to the island after that point. In 1943 rats colonised Midway from a beached ship and wiped out the rails permanently.

Hawaiian Rail Zapornia sandwichensis
Known from seven specimens collected on Hawaii (Big Island) between 1779 and the mid-1800s.


As well as the historically-recorded species above, there are numerous pre-European extinctions known from the Pacific.

From the Hawaiian Islands, at least two further undescribed species (apart for Zapornia sandwichensis mentioned above) are known from Hawaii (Big Island); Zapornia keplerorum, Zapornia severnsi, and another undescribed species are known from Maui; Zapornia menehune is known from Molokai; and Zapornia ziegleri and Zapornia ralphorum are known from Oahu.

Zapornia rua is known from subfossil deposits on Mangaia (in the Cook Islands).

Undescribed species are also known from remains uncovered in the Marianas, Marquesas, Cook Islands, Society Islands, and on Easter Island.



Photo below of a taxidermy specimen of Laysan Rail Zapornia palmeri by @Ding Lingwei at the American Museum of Natural History (USA).

Laysan rail (Porzana palmeri) - ZooChat

 

[Chlidonias]

Brown Crake Zapornia akool
Two subspecies: akool and coccineipes.

Formerly placed in the genus Amaurornis.



Z. a. akool is from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar.

Z. a. coccineipes is from southeastern China and northeastern Vietnam.



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Henderson Island Crake Zapornia atra
Monotypic.



Endemic to Henderson Island in the Pacific.



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Black-tailed Crake Zapornia bicolor
Monotypic.



Found from the north-east of the Indian subcontinent (Nepal, Bhutan, and northeast India) through to south-central China and northern Indochina.



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Black Crake Zapornia flavirostra
Monotypic.

Formerly placed in the genus Amaurornis.



Found through most of subsaharan Africa.



Photo by @geomorph at San Diego Zoo (USA)

Lost Forest - Gorilla Tropics - Scripps Aviary - Black Crake - ZooChat



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Ruddy-breasted Crake Zapornia fusca
Five subspecies: bakeri, erythrothorax, fusca, phaeopyga, zeylonica


Z. f. bakeri is from Pakistan and north India through to southcentral China and Indochina. This subspecies is combined in the nominate Z. f. fusca by BOW.

Z. f. erythrothorax is from the Russian Far East, Korea, Japan, and China.

Z. f. fusca is from Peninsular Malaysia to the Lesser Sundas.

Z. f. phaeopyga is from the Ryukyu Islands.

Z. f. zeylonica is from western India and Sri Lanka.



Photo by @Dr. Wolverine in the wild, Japan - female bird of the subspecies erythrothorax (males do not have the white throat).

Ruddy Breasted Crake ~ Kasai Rinkai Park - ZooChat

 

[Chlidonias]

Sakalava Rail Zapornia olivieri
Monotypic.



Endemic to Madagascar.



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Little Crake Zapornia parva
Monotypic.



Found from Europe across Central Asia to Xinjiang (China); winters south to Africa and northwest India.



Photo by @Kazaa67 in the wild, Netherlands - immature bird

Little crake, Porzana parva - ZooChat



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Band-bellied Crake Zapornia paykullii
Monotypic.



Found in north-eastern Asia; wintering in southeast Asia and the Greater Sundas.



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Baillon's Crake Zapornia pusilla
Six subspecies: affinis, intermedia, mayri, mira, palustris, pusilla.

Four subspecies are represented in the Zoochat galleries by live birds - the New Zealand affinis, the European intermedia, the Australian palustris, and the east Asian pusilla.



Z. p. affinis is from New Zealand and the Chatham Islands. This subspecies is typically called the Marsh Crake in New Zealand.

Z. p. intermedia is from Europe to Asia Minor, and south through Africa and Madagascar. The African range has been treated as a separate subspecies in the past, obscura.

Z. p. mayri is from the Wissel Lakes in New Guinea.

Z. p. mira is from Borneo but is apparently known only from one specimen from 1912 and I'm not sure it should even be considered valid.

Z. p. palustris is from eastern New Guinea, Australia, and Tasmania.

Z. p. pusilla is from eastern Europe through central and eastern Asia, and south to Indonesia and the Philippines. The distributional overlap between intermedia and pusilla in Europe is unclear, and the BOW has the distribution of Z. p. pusilla simply as "c and e Asia".



Photo by @Chlidonias in the wild, New Zealand - subspecies affinis.

Marsh Crake (Zapornia pusilla) - ZooChat


Photo by @devilfish at Canada de los Pajaros (Spain) - presumably the European subspecies intermedia.

Baillon's crake, July 2013. - ZooChat


Photo by @Hix in the wild, Australia - subspecies palustris.

Baillon's Crake - ZooChat


Photo by @Nadchew_ in the wild, Singapore - subspecies pusilla.

Baillon's Crake - ZooChat



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Spotless Crake Zapornia tabuensis
Perhaps monotypic, perhaps with as many as ten subspecies. The BOW treats it as monotypic, while HBW had it with three subspecies (edwardi, richardsoni, tabuensis - the first two being restricted to mountains in New Guinea); other subspecies which were combined into the nominate were caledonica, filipina, immaculata, oliveri, plumbea, tenebrosa and vitiensis. The type locality is the Tongan islands (tabuensis being a reference to the island of Tonga Tapu).



Found from the Philippines to Australia, New Zealand, and on islands throughout a large part of the Pacific.



Photo by @Chlidonias in the wild, New Zealand - birds from New Zealand and southern Australia have been separated as the subspecies plumbea in the past, but this is rarely followed now (otherwise combined in the subspecies tabuensis).

Spotless Crake (Zapornia tabuensis) - ZooChat


Photo by @WhistlingKite24 in the wild, Australia - subspecies tabuensis.

Spotless Crake - ZooChat

 

[Chlidonias]

The "Laterallus" clade.


This clade contains five or six extant genera, with about twenty extant species. There are two further extinct genera (Aphanocrex and Mundia) from Atlantic Ocean islands.

Most of the genera are very small. Atlantisia, Hapalocrex and Micropygia only contain one species each, while Anurolimnas and Coturnicops each contain three species. The largest genus is Laterallus with about ten species. However note that Atlantisia is nested well within Laterallus genetically so should not be kept separated, and the extinct genera Aphanocrex and Mundia probably also belong in Laterallus.

Almost all the rails in this clade are from the Americas (and largely from South America), apart for Swinhoe's Rail Coturnicops exquisitus of east Asia, and a group of species from islands in the Atlantic Ocean of which only one species is still extant (the Inaccessible Rail Atlantisia rogersi).


Only four species are represented in the Zoochat galleries, all from the genus Laterallus: the White-throated Crake L. albigularis, the Red and White Crake L. leucopyrrhus, the Rufous-sided Crake L. melanophaius, and the Ruddy Crake L. ruber.

 

[Chlidonias]

Anuromlimnas
Three species, none of which are represented in the Zoochat galleries.

All three species have been / may be placed in other genera.



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Chestnut-headed Crake Anurolimnas castaneiceps
Two subspecies: castaneiceps and coccineipes.

Has also been placed in the genus Rallina.



R. c. castaneiceps is from northwest South America.

R. c. coccineipes is from northern South America.



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Black-banded Crake Anurolimnas fasciata
Monotypic

Placed in Anurolimnas by HBW but in Laterallus by BOW.



Found from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, across to Amazonian Brazil.



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Russet-crowned Crake Anurolimnas viridis
Two subspecies: brunnescens and viridis.

Placed in Anurolimnas by HBW but in Laterallus by BOW.



R. v. brunnescens is restricted to a small area of north-central Colombia.

R. v. viridis is found throughout Amazonia.

 

[Chlidonias]

Atlantisia
One living species, which is not represented in the Zoochat galleries.

The extinct St Helena Crake Aphanocrex podarces is also placed in Atlantisia by some taxonomists (as in BOW).


The genus Atlantisia is actually nested well within Laterallus genetically, and so should not be kept separate. The extinct genera Aphanocrex and Mundia have not been sampled genetically, as far as I can tell, but probably also belong in Laterallus.



Inaccessible Rail Atlantisia rogersi
Monotypic.



Endemic to Inaccessible Island, in the Tristan da Cunha group (in the Atlantic Ocean).

 

[Chlidonias]

Coturnicops
Three species, none of which are represented in the Zoochat galleries.


The Ocellated Crake Micropygia schomburgkii has also been placed in this genus by some taxonomists.



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Swinhoe's Rail Coturnicops exquisitus
Monotypic.



Found in eastern Asia (east Russia and northeast China), wintering from Japan and Korea to southeast China.



......................



Speckled Rail Coturnicops notatus
Monotypic.



Known sporadically through a large part of South America, from Colombia and Venezuela in the north to Argentina in the south.



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Yellow Rail Coturnicops noveboracensis
Two subspecies: goldmani and novaeboracensis.


C. n. goldmani was found in the marshes of Rio Lerma in central Mexico but has not been recorded since 1964 and is thought to be extinct due to the marshes having been largely destroyed.

C. n. noveboracensis is found through a large part of North America (Canada and USA).

 

[Chlidonias]

Hapalocrex
One species, which is not represented in the Zoochat galleries.

The single species in this genus was formerly part of the genus Porzana but genetic studies show it not to be related to either the "true" Porzana or to the split genus Zapornia.



Yellow-breasted Crake Hapalocrex flaviventer
Five subspecies: bangsi, flaviventer, gossii, hendersoni, woodi


H. f. bangsi is from north Colombia.

H. f. flaviventer is found from Panama down through South America east of the Andes as far as Argentina; also in Trinidad.

H. f. gossii is from Cuba and Jamaica.

H. f. hendersoni is from Hispaniola and Puerto Rico.

H. f. woodi is found from southern Mexico to northwest Costa Rica.

 

[Chlidonias]

Laterallus
Ten species, four of which are represented in the Zoochat galleries.


The Dot-winged Crake Laterallus spiloptera was formerly placed in Porzana.

Two species which I have placed in the genus Anurolimnas (the Black-banded Crake A. fasciata and Russet-crowned Crake A. viridis) are alternatively placed in Laterallus.



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White-throated Crake Laterallus albigularis
Three subspecies: albigularis, cerdaleus, cinereiceps.


L. a. albigularis is from the Pacific side of southwest Costa Rica to Colombia and Ecuador.

L. a. cerdaleus is from northern Colombia to northwest Venezuela.

L. a. cinereiceps is from the Caribbean and Atlantic side of Central America, from Honduras to Panama.



Photo by @birdsandbats in the wild, Costa Rica - subspecies cinereiceps.

White-throated Crake (Laterallus albigularis) - ZooChat



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Grey-breasted Crake Laterallus exilis
Monotypic.



Found from Guatemala to Argentina.



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Black Rail Laterallus jamaicensis
Five subspecies: coturniculus, jamaicensis, murivagans, salinasi, tuerosi.


L. j. coturniculus is from the western USA and extreme northwest Mexico.

L. j. jamaicensis is from the central and eastern USA through to Central America, including the Greater Antilles.

L. j. murivagans is from coastal (central) Peru.

L. j. salinasi is from coastal (southwestern) Peru, central Chile and extreme western Argentina (sometimes treated as a separate species).

L. j. tuerosi is from Lake Junin in Peru (sometimes treated as a separate species, as it was in HBW Alive).



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Red and White Crake Laterallus leucopyrrhus
Monotypic.



Found from Paraguay and southeast Brazil to Uruguay and Argentina.



Photo by @gentle lemur at Newquay Zoo (UK)

Red & white crake - ZooChat



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Rusty-flanked Crake Laterallus levraudi
Monotypic.



Found only in Venezuela, north of the Orinoco River.



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Rufous-sided Crake Laterallus melanophaius
Two subspecies: melanophaius and oenops.


L. m. melanophaius is found in eastern and central South America as far south as Argentina.

L. m. oenops is found in north-central South America (southern Colombia, east Ecuador, east Peru, and west Brazil).



Photo by @Therabu in the wild, Brazil - subspecies melanophaius.

Rufous-sided Crake (Laterallus melanophaius) - ZooChat



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Ruddy Crake Laterallus ruber
Monotypic.



Found in Central America, from southern Mexico to northwest Costa Rica.



Photo by @ralph in the wild, Mexico

Ruddy crake (Laterallus ruber) - ZooChat



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Galapagos Rail Laterallus spilonota
Monotypic.

Sometimes treated as a subspecies of the Black Rail Laterallus jamaicensis.



Endemic to the Galapagos Islands.



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Dot-winged Crake Laterallus spiloptera
Monotypic.

Formerly placed in the genus Porzana.



Found in southeast Brazil, Argentina, and southern Uruguay.



......................



Rufous-faced Crake Laterallus xenopterus
Monotypic.



Found in north Bolivia, south-central Brazil, and central Paraguay.

 

[Chlidonias]

Micropygia
One species, which is not represented in the Zoochat galleries.

Sometimes merged with the genus Coturnicops.



Ocellated Crake Micropygia schomburgkii
Two subspecies: chapmani and schomburgkii.


M. s. chapmani is found from Peru to Brazil and Paraguay.

M. s. schomburgkii is found from Costa Rica through to the Guianas.

 

[Chlidonias]

The "Gallicrex" clade.


This clade contains four genera, all of which are monotypic except for Amaurornis which has five or six species. This latter genus seems pretty messy, containing some species which have often been placed in other genera. The monotypic genera are Aenigmatolimnas, Gallicrex and Megacrex.


Three species are represented in the Zoochat galleries as living birds (the White-browed Crake "Amaurornis" cinerea, Pale-vented Bush Hen Amaurornis moluccana, and White-breasted Waterhen Amaurornis phoenicurus), although the Watercock Gallicrex cinerea can be seen as a taxidermy specimen.