Buff-banded rail | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Gruiformes |
Family: | Rallidae |
Genus: | Hypotaenidia |
Species: | H. philippensis |
Binomial name | |
Hypotaenidia philippensis (Linnaeus, 1766) | |
Synonyms | |
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The buff-banded rail (Hypotaenidia philippensis) is a distinctively coloured, highly dispersive, medium-sized rail of the rail family, Rallidae. This species comprises several subspecies found throughout much of Australasia and the south-west Pacific region, including the Philippines (where it is known as tikling), New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand (where it is known as the banded rail, or moho-pererū in Māori), [2] and numerous smaller islands, covering a range of latitudes from the tropics to the subantarctic.
In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson described and illustrated the buff-banded rail in his multi-volume Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in the Philippines. He used the French name Le rasle rayé des Philippines and the Latin name Rallus Philippensis Striatus. [3] Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. [4] When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson in his Ornithologie. [4] One of these was the buff-banded rail. Linnaeus included a terse description, coined the binomial name Rallus philippensis and cited Brisson's work. [5] The buff-banded rail was formerly placed in the genus Gallirallus but is now placed in the genus Hypotaenidia that was introduced in 1853 by the German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach. [6]
Numerous subspecies are recognised for the buff-banded rail because of repeated dispersion of birds to islands in the Pacific, often followed by founder effects and reduced potential for gene flow. [7] The weka in New Zealand evolved from a lineage with common ancestry to modern buff-tailed banded rail populations, and has changed over time to become flightless.
Twenty subspecies are recognised: [6]
It is a largely terrestrial bird the size of a small domestic chicken, with mainly brown upperparts, finely banded black and white underparts, a white eyebrow, chestnut band running from the bill round the nape, with a buff band on the breast. It utilises a range of moist or wetland habitats with low, dense vegetation for cover. It is usually quite shy but may become very tame and bold in some circumstances, such as in island resorts within the Great Barrier Reef region. [8]
The buff-banded rail is an omnivorous scavenger which feeds on a range of terrestrial invertebrates and small vertebrates, seeds, fallen fruit and other vegetable matter, as well as carrion and refuse. Its nest is usually situated in dense grassy or reedy vegetation close to water, with a clutch size of 3–4. Although some island populations may be threatened, or even exterminated, by introduced predators, the species as a whole appears to be safe and its conservation status is considered to be of Least Concern. [9]
The white-breasted woodswallow is a medium-sized passerine bird which breeds from the Andaman Islands east through Indonesia and northern Australia. The name "woodswallow" is a misnomer as they are not closely related to true swallows. Instead, they belong to the family Artamidae, which also includes butcherbirds, currawongs and the Australian magpie.
The olive-backed sunbird, also known as the garden sunbird, is a species of sunbird endemic to the Philippines except the Palawan island group.
The pied bush chat is a small passerine bird found ranging from West Asia and Central Asia to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. About sixteen subspecies are recognized through its wide range with many island forms. It is a familiar bird of countryside and open scrub or grassland where it is found perched at the top of short thorn trees or other shrubs, looking out for insect prey. They pick up insects mainly from the ground, and were, like other chats, placed in the thrush family Turdidae, but are now considered as Old World flycatchers.
The Amboyna cuckoo-dove is a dove in the genus Macropygia found in the Moluccas and New Guinea. It was one of three new species defined when the slender-billed cuckoo-dove was split up in 2016 and retains the Latin binomial of the former species.[1]
The hair-crested drongo is an Asian bird of the family Dicruridae. This species was formerly considered conspecific with Dicrurus bracteatus, for which the name "spangled drongo" – formerly used for both – is now usually reserved. Some authorities include the Sumatran drongo in D. hottentottus as subspecies.
The extinct Wake Island rail was a flightless rail and the only native land bird on the Pacific atoll of Wake. It was found on the islands of Wake and Wilkes, and Peale, which is separated from the others by a channel of about 100 meters. It was hunted to extinction during World War II.
Gallirallus is a genus of rails that live in the Australasian-Pacific region. The genus is characterised by an ability to colonise relatively small and isolated islands and thereafter to evolve flightless forms, many of which became extinct following Polynesian settlement.
The Tahiti rail, Tahitian red-billed rail, or Pacific red-billed rail is an extinct species of rail that lived on Tahiti. It was first recorded during James Cook's second voyage around the world (1772–1775), on which it was illustrated by Georg Forster and described by Johann Reinhold Forster. No specimens have been preserved. As well as the documentation by the Forsters, there have been claims that the bird also existed on the nearby island of Mehetia. The Tahiti rail appears to have been closely related to, and perhaps derived from, the buff-banded rail, and has also been historically confused with the Tongan subspecies of that bird.
The uniform swiftlet,, also known as the Vanikoro swiftlet or lowland swiftlet, is a gregarious, medium-sized swiftlet with a shallowly forked tail. The colouring is dark grey-brown, darker on the upperparts with somewhat paler underparts, especially on chin and throat. This species is widespread from the Philippines through Wallacea, New Guinea and Melanesia. It forages for flying insects primarily in lowland forests and open areas. It nests in caves where it uses its sense of echolocation, rare in birds, to navigate.
The glossy swiftlet is a species of swift in the family Apodidae. It is found on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and eastwards to New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands.
The coleto is a starling species in the monotypic genus Sarcops. It is endemic to the Philippines. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forest, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest. In Filipino and Tagalog, this bird is known as kuling or koleto, while in Central Visayas, it is commonly known as the sal-ing.
The claret-breasted fruit dove is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is found in the Moluccas, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands archipelago. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.
Dieffenbach's rail, known in the Moriori language as meriki or mehoriki, is an extinct flightless species of bird from the family Rallidae. It was endemic to the Chatham Islands.
Sharpe's rail is a species of bird in the family Rallidae. It is known only from the type specimen of unknown origin, but it has been speculated that it originated from Indonesia. Due to the lack of recent records, it has been considered extinct, but new evidence suggests it is possibly better regarded as a morph of the buff-banded rail.
The purple-throated sunbird, is a species of bird in the family Nectariniidae. Its natural habitats are lowland tropical forests and subtropical or tropical mangrove forests of Maratua and the Philippines.
The Cocos buff-banded rail, Gallirallus philippensis andrewsi, is an endangered subspecies of the buff-banded rail endemic to the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, an Australian Offshore Territory in the central-eastern Indian Ocean. The local Cocos Malay name of the bird is ayam hutan.
The Macquarie rail, also known as the Macquarie Island rail, is an extinct subspecies of the buff-banded rail endemic to Macquarie Island, a subantarctic island that is part of the state of Tasmania, Australia. The holotype is in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
The Pacific koel, also known as the eastern koel or formerly common koel, is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. In Australia, it is colloquially known as the rainbird or stormbird, as its call is usually more prevalent before or during stormy weather.
The Ua Huka rail is an extinct species of flightless bird in the Rallidae, or rail family.
The coconut lorikeet, also known as the green-naped lorikeet, is a parrot in the family Psittaculidae. Seven species of lorikeets now recognised were once lumped together under Trichoglossus haematodus.