Rallo fasciato

Identificazione

The black-banded crake is 17 to 20 cm (6.7 to 7.9 in) long. The sexes are alike. Adults have a dark horn or blackish bill. Their head, throat, and breast are rufous. Their back, rump, and wings are deep olive-brown, with a light reddish tinge to the inner flight feathers. Their belly, vent, and undertail coverts are cinnamon-rufous with heavy black bars. Their legs and feet are bright coral red. Immatures have a paler head and breast than adults. Their upperparts' olive-brown has a chestnut wash and the barring on their underparts is olive-brown.

Tassonomia

The black-banded crake's taxonomy is unsettled. The International Ornithological Committee places it in genus Laterallus. BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World places it in genus Porzana. The South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society and the Clements taxonomy place it in genus Anurolimnas.<p>The worldwide taxonomic systems agree that the black-banded crake is monotypic.

Nome scientifico

Rufirallus fasciatus

Autorità

(Sclater, PL & Salvin, 1868)

Ordine

Gruiformi

Famiglia

Rallidae

Genere

Rufirallus

Areale e habitat

The black-banded crake is found in the western Amazon Basin, from southeastern Colombia south through eastern Ecuador to south-central Peru and east into western Brazil. It inhabits humid landscapes with a dense understory such as secondary forest, where it especially favors overgrown agricultural plots in tropical evergreen forest. It also favors thickets of Heliconia and, on river islands, stands of Cecropia. In elevation it is mostly found below 600 m (2,000 ft) but reaches as high as 1,100 m (3,600 ft) locally in Ecuador.

Migrazione

Resident species

Comportamento

The black-banded crake is a year-round resident throughout its range.<p>The black-banded crake forages on damp ground in dense cover, where it searches for food in leaf litter. Its diet has not been documented but is assumed to be invertebrates and seeds.<p>Almost nothing is known about the black-banded crake's breeding biology. It vigorously defends territories of up to about 2 ha (5 acres). It makes a dome nest of grass with a side entrance. One was sited on a fallen limb about 2 m (7 ft) above the ground.<p>One author described the black-banded crake's song as "a rubbery, musical trill, deeper and more bubbly than that of [other] Laterallus crakes." The female sings a shorter version of the song than the male.

Conservazione

Tendenza della popolazione

unknown