| Watercock | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Male at Basai Wetlands, near Gurgaon, Haryana, India | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Gruiformes |
| Family: | Rallidae |
| Genus: | Gallicrex Blyth, 1852 |
| Species: | G. cinerea |
| Binomial name | |
| Gallicrex cinerea (Gmelin, JF, 1789) | |
The watercock (Gallicrex cinerea) is a waterbird in the rail and crake family, Rallidae that is widely distributed across Southeast Asia. It is the only member of the genus Gallicrex.
The watercock was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae . He placed it with the coots in the genus Fulica and coined the binomial name Fulica cinerea. [2] Gmelin based his description on the "crested gallinule" from China that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his A General Synopsis of Birds. [3] The watercock is now the only species placed in the genus Gallicrex that was introduced in 1852 by Edward Blyth. [4] [5] The genus name combines the genus Gallus with the genus Crex . The specific epithet cinerea is from the Latin cinereus meaning "ash-grey". [6] The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. [5]
Traditionally held to be closely related to moorhens (which the adult male visually closely resembles), it is actually a member of a mostly tropical Asian clade containing also Aenigmatolimnas, Amaurornis, Himantornis and Megacrex . [7]
Adult male watercocks are 43 cm (17 in) long and weigh 476–650 g (1.049–1.433 lb). [8] They have mainly black-grey plumage with red legs, bill, extended frontal shield and horn. Young males are buff in colour, darkening as they mature. Their bill is yellow and their legs are green. Female birds are smaller at 36 cm (14 in) and 298–434 g (10.5–15.3 oz). [8] They are dark brown above and paler below. Their plumage is streaked and barred with darker markings. The bill is yellow and the legs are green. The downy chicks are black, as with all rails. The body of this rail is flattened laterally to allow easier passage through the reeds or undergrowth. It has long toes and a short tail.
Watercock are quite secretive, but are sometimes seen out in the open. They are noisy birds, especially at dawn and dusk, with a loud, gulping call.
Their breeding habitat is swamps across south Asia from India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka to south China, Korea, Japan, Philippines and Indonesia. These large rails are mainly permanent residents throughout their range.
They nest in a dry location on the ground in marsh vegetation, laying 3-6 eggs.
These birds probe with their bill in mud or shallow water, also picking up food by sight. They mainly eat insects and small fish and seeds. They forage on the ground.
Coots are medium-sized water birds that are members of the rail family, Rallidae. They constitute the genus Fulica, the name being the Latin term for "coot". Coots have predominantly black plumage, and—unlike many rails—they are usually easy to see, often swimming in open water.
The greater yellowlegs is a large shorebird in the family Scolopacidae. It breeds in central Canada and southern Alaska and winters in southern North America, Central America, the West Indies and South America.
The lesser yellowlegs is a medium-sized shorebird. It breeds in the boreal forest region of North America.
The short-billed dowitcher, like its congener the long-billed dowitcher, is a medium-sized, stocky, long-billed shorebird in the family Scolopacidae.
The gull-billed tern, formerly Sterna nilotica, is a tern in the family Laridae. It is widely distributed and breeds in scattered localities in Europe, Asia, northwest Africa, and the Americas. The Australian gull-billed tern was previously considered a subspecies.
The African jacana is a wader in the family Jacanidae. It has long toes and long claws that enables it to walk on floating vegetation in shallow lakes, its preferred habitat. It is widely distributed in sub-Saharan Africa. For the origin and pronunciation of the name, see Jacanidae.
The clapper rail is a member of the rail family, Rallidae. The taxonomy for this species is confusing and still being determined. It is a large brown rail that is resident in wetlands along the Atlantic coasts of the eastern United States, eastern Mexico and some Caribbean islands. This species was formerly considered to be conspecific with the mangrove rail.
The yellow rail is a small secretive marsh bird of the family Rallidae that is found in North America.
The yellow bittern is a small bittern. It is of Old World origins, breeding in the northern Indian Subcontinent, east to the Russian Far East, Japan and Indonesia. It is mainly resident, but some northern birds migrate short distances. It has been recorded as a vagrant in Alaska and there is a single sighting in Great Britain, from Radipole Lake, Dorset on November 23, 1962 – however, the British Ornithologists' Union has always considered this occurrence to be of uncertain provenance and currently it is not accepted onto the official British List.
The Pacific swallow is a small passerine bird in the swallow family. It breeds in tropical southern Asia and the islands of the south Pacific. It is resident apart from some local seasonal movements. This bird is associated with coasts, but is increasingly spreading to forested uplands. The hill swallow and the welcome swallow were formerly considered conspecific.
The red-knobbed coot or crested coot,, is a member of the rail and crake bird family, the Rallidae.
The red-billed teal or red-billed duck is a dabbling duck which is an abundant resident breeder in southern and eastern Africa typically south of 10° S. This duck is not migratory, but will fly great distances to find suitable waters. It is highly gregarious outside the breeding season and forms large flocks.
The bristle-thighed curlew is a medium-sized shorebird that breeds in Alaska and winters on tropical Pacific islands.
The wandering tattler, is a medium-sized wading bird. It is similar in appearance to the closely related gray-tailed tattler, T. brevipes. The tattlers are unique among the species of Tringa for having unpatterned, greyish wings and backs, and a scaly breast pattern extending more or less onto the belly in breeding plumage, in which both also have a rather prominent supercilium.
The Phoenix petrel is a medium-sized tropical seabird, measuring up to 35 cm (1.15 ft) long, with a wingspan of 83 cm (2.72 ft). It has a dark brown upperparts plumage, white below and whitish throat. The sexes are similar.
The African rail is a small wetland bird of the rail family that is found in eastern and southern Africa.
The Cape spurfowl or Cape francolin is a gamebird in the pheasant family Phasianidae. It is endemic to southern Africa, where it is the largest francolin. It occurs in the Western Cape province of South Africa, and locally northwards to southern Namibia. It has adapted to alien vegetation and a variety of human-altered habitats, but scrubby roosting and nesting space is a prerequisite. The species is not threatened.
The southern boubou is a bushshrike. Though these passerine birds and their relations were once included with true shrikes in the Laniidae, they are not closely related to that family.
The large-billed tern is a species of tern in the family Laridae. It is placed the monotypic genus Phaetusa. It is found in most of South America. It has occurred as a vagrant in Aruba, Bermuda, Cuba, Panama and the United States. Its natural habitats are rivers and freshwater lakes.
The pale thrush is a passerine bird of the eastern Palearctic belonging to the genus Turdus in the thrush family Turdidae. It is closely related to the eye-browed thrush and grey-backed thrush.
