Chestnut-headed Crake
Anurolimnas castaneiceps
Tall, distinctively-colored crake. Grayish-brown body, with a big orange hood over the head and upper body; bright red eye. Not as closely associated with water as other crakes and rails; usually found in dense secondary growth. Early bamboo growth seems to be its favored habitat in some areas. Its song is often given in duet; a bouncing two-part whistle: “toot, toorrr, toot, toorrr…” that is easily imitated.
Identification
The chestnut-headed crake is 19 to 21.5 cm (7.5 to 8.5 in) long. One female weighed 126 g (4.4 oz). The sexes are alike. Adults' bills have a mostly black maxilla that is greenish below the nostrils and a greenish mandible with a black tip. The nominate subspecies' forecrown, sides of the head and neck, and breast are bright rufous. Their throat is orange-rufous or light buff. Their crown, back, rump, wing coverts, belly, and vent area are brownish olive. Their legs and feet are dull brown or olivaceous. Immatures are duller; they are brown or brownish olive where the adult is rufous and their throat is pale grayish buff. Subspecies R. c. coccineipes has red legs and feet but very similar plumage to the nominate. Some authors state that it has greener (less brown) upperparts and tawny tones to the rufous areas, but others find no significant difference between the subspecies.
Taxonomy
The chestnut-headed crake's taxonomy is unsettled. The International Ornithological Committee (IOC) and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) place the chestnut-headed crake in genus Rufirallus with the russet-crowned crake (R. viridis). The South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society and the Clements taxonomy place it in genus Anurolimnas with the russet-crowned crake and black-banded crake (A. fasciatus). The IOC places the latter species in genus Laterallus and HBW places it in genus Porzana.<p>The worldwide taxonomic systems agree that the species has two subspecies, the nominate R.(or A.) c. castaneiceps and R.(or A.) c. coccineipes.
- Scientific name
- Anurolimnas castaneiceps
- Authority
- (Sclater, PL & Salvin, 1869)
- Order
- Gruiformes
- Family
- Rallidae
- Genus
- Anurolimnas
Range and habitat
The nominate subspecies of chestnut-headed crake is found from southern Colombia south through eastern Ecuador into northern Peru. Its southern limit in Peru is the left bank of the Rio Napo and in Ecuador it is the same or perhaps somewhat beyond it. R. c. coccineipes is found from the Rio Napo (or vicinity) in Ecuador and Peru south into extreme northwestern Bolivia. A separate population is found in Brazil's Acre state. The species inhabits humid landscapes with a dense understory such as secondary forest, where it especially favors overgrown agricultural plots in tropical evergreen forest. Unlike most others of its family, it can be found far from water. In Colombia it is found up to 1,500 m (4,900 ft); in Ecuador it mostly occurs below 700 m (2,300 ft) but can be found as high as 1,000 m (3,300 ft).
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The chestnut-headed crake is a year-round resident throughout its range.<p>The chestnut-headed crake forages by probing debris and rotten wood and flicking aside leaves while walking on the ground. It also pecks at similar substrates above the ground by stretching up. Its diet has not been documented but is assumed to be invertebrates and seeds.<p>Almost nothing is known about the chestnut-headed crake's breeding biology. Its nesting season appears to include June.<p>The chestnut-headed crake has a loud melodic song described by one author as "a long (lasting up to 5 min) series of tri- or bisyllabic whistles: wee-hoohoo wee-hoohoo wee-hoohoo ...". Its aggressive call is "a quiet puttering sound".
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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