Paint-billed crake

The paint-billed crake (Neocrex erythrops) is a species of bird in the family Rallidae.

Paint-billed crake
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Gruiformes
Family: Rallidae
Genus: Neocrex
Species:
N. erythrops
Binomial name
Neocrex erythrops
(Sclater, 1867)
Range (note: distribution on Trinidad and Tobago, Central America, and the Galapagos is missing.)
Synonyms

Mustelirallus erythrops

Taxonomy and etymology

Its name derives from its bright red beak.[2]

Description

It is small, measuring 18 to 20 centimetres (7.1 to 7.9 in) on average.[2] One was captured having a wingspan of around 200mm, a tarsus of 28mm and weighing in at 43 grams[3]

Distribution

The paint-billed crake is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela. There is one record of the bird in the United States. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland, swamps, and pastureland.

Paint-billed crake on Floreana Island in the Galápagos Archipelago.

Behaviour

It is nocturnal, active primarily during the night,[2] and does not respond to playback.[4]

Breeding

It builds its nest on the ground, under the protection of vegetation in grassy fields.[2] The paint-bellied crake lays a clutch of three to seven eggs that are coloured creamy buff and have large, reddish blotches near the blunt end of the egg. The egg is incubated for a period of 24 days, with the parent sitting on the nest, thus camouflaging the nest.[2]

References
  1. BirdLife International (2016). "Neocrex erythrops". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22692760A93368173. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22692760A93368173.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. Hauber, Mark E. (1 August 2014). The Book of Eggs: A Life-Size Guide to the Eggs of Six Hundred of the World's Bird Species. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-226-05781-1.
  3. Osborn, David; Beissinger, Steven R. (1979). "Paint-Billed Crake in Guyana". The Auk. 96 (2): 425. doi:10.1093/auk/96.2.425 (inactive 28 February 2022). Retrieved 2019-10-22.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of February 2022 (link)
  4. Dvorak, Michael (June 2017). "Conservation Status of Landbirds on Floreana: the Smallest Inhabited Galapagos Island". Journal of Field Ornithology. 88 (2): 132–145. doi:10.1111/jofo.12197.


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