• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Where premium quality meets exceptional value. ZEISS Conquest HDX.

New Britain Rail - BirdForum Opus

Alternative name: Pink-legged Rail

Gallirallus insignis

Identification

33 cm. A probably almost flightless rail.

  • Dark brown head and upperparts
  • Blackish underparts with fine white barring
  • Very short tail
  • Some white barring on inner webs of primaries
  • Pinkish legs
  • Black bill

Sexes similar, juveniles not described.

Similar species

Barred Rail has a longer tail and brown legs, Okinawa Rail has reddish bill and legs.

Distribution

Endemic to New Britain Island in the Bismarck Archipelago off Papua New Guinea.
Locally common in the 1980's, current status unknown. Hunted and eaten by local people.

Taxonomy

This is a monotypic species.
Sometimes placed in genus Rallus, Hypotaenidia or monospecific Habropteryx. Clearly closely related to Barred Rail and Okinawa Rail.

Habitat

Found in heavy damp forest and mountain valleys, also in swampy cane grass.
Occurs from sea-level up to 1130 m.

Behaviour

Diet

Feeds on snails, insects and vegetable matter.

Breeding

Nests on the ground. Usually seen in groups. No other information available.

Movements

Presumably a resident species.

References

  1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2014. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.9., with updates to August 2014. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
  2. Gill, F and D Donsker (Eds). 2015. IOC World Bird Names (version 5.2). Available at http://www.worldbirdnames.org/.
  3. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved July 2015)

Recommended Citation

External Links

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.

Back
Top