Paint-billed crake

Paint-billed crake
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Gruiformes
Family: Rallidae
Genus: Mustelirallus
Species: M. erythrops
Binomial name
Mustelirallus erythrops
(Sclater, 1867)
Synonyms

Neocrex erythrops

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

Taxonomy and etymology

This bird derives its name from its bright red beak.[2]

Description

This crake is small, measuring 18 to 20 centimetres (7.1 to 7.9 in) on average.[2]

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.

Behaviour

This bird is nocturnal, active primarily during the night.[2]

Breeding

This bird builds its nest on the ground, under the protection of vegetation in grassy fields.[2]

The paint-billed crake is a territorial bird.[2]

This 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. This 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 (2012). "Neocrex erythrops". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 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.


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