Rallina
Rallina | |
---|---|
Red-necked crake (Rallina tricolor) | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Gruiformes |
Family: | Rallidae |
Genus: | Rallina G.R. Gray, 1846 |
Type species | |
Rallus fasciatus[1] Raffles, 1822 | |
Synonyms | |
Tomirdus Mathews, 1912 |
Rallina is a genus of bird in the rail family, Rallidae. It contains four species found in forest and marshland in Asia and Australasia.[2] They are 18–34 cm long and mainly chestnut or brown, often with black and white markings.[3]
Four African species formerly usually placed in Rallina are now placed in the genus Rallicula; some taxonomic authorities continue to place them in Rallina, but as the pronounced sexual dimorphism of Rallicula shows, they are no true rails at all, but instead belong to the recently-separated (though outwardly similar) flufftail family Sarothruridae.
Species
The genus contains the following four species:[2]
Common name | Scientific name and subspecies | Range | Size and ecology | IUCN status and estimated population |
---|---|---|---|---|
Red-necked crake | Rallina tricolor Gray, 1858 |
the Moluccas, Lesser Sundas, New Guinea lowlands and adjacent islands, and north-eastern Australia. | Size: Habitat: Diet: |
LC
|
Andaman crake | Rallina canningi (Blyth, 1863) |
Andaman Islands | Size: Habitat: Diet: |
LC
|
Red-legged crake | Rallina fasciata (Raffles, 1822) |
north-eastern India, eastern Bangladesh, Burma, Thailand, Malay Peninsula, Borneo and Indonesia | Size: Habitat: Diet: |
LC
|
Slaty-legged crake | Rallina eurizonoides (Lafresnaye, 1845) |
India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka to the Philippines and Indonesia. | Size: Habitat: Diet: |
LC
|
A fifth Rallina species, the Great Nicobar crake, was proposed but not formally described in 2012.[4] As of 2023, the supposed new species was only recorded twice, in 2011 and 2015; however, in 2021 populations of Red-legged and Slaty-legged crakes were discovered to inhabit Great Nicobar Island. It is thus more likely that the "Great Nicobar crake" is a hybrid between these two species, or even between a local Red-legged crake and a stray individual of the Andaman crake (being essentially intermediate in appearance between them).
References
- ^ "Rallidae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
- ^ a b Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Flufftails, finfoots, rails, trumpeters, cranes, limpkin". World Bird List Version 9.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
- ^ Taylor, Barry & Ber van Perlo (1998). Rails: A Guide to the Rails, Crakes, Gallinules and Coots of the World. Sussex: Pica Press.
- ^ kumar, S Rajesh. "An apparently new species of Rallina crake from Great Nicobar Island, India". BirdingASIA. 17: 44–46.