Limpkin | Aramidae

Koerlan | Carrao

The family holds a single species worldwide, at home in marshes with plenty of floating growth and slow-moving water. Its food consists largely of apple snails. The long bill is bent slightly to the right at the tip, exactly the way the snail's shell coils, and the two halves of the bill meet only at the front, forming a pair of tweezers. The bird carries the snail to a fixed spot on the bank, wedges the shell in the mud with the opening upward, cuts the closing muscle and draws the animal out whole; at such a feeding place hundreds of undamaged empty shells build up over time. Freshwater mussels, insects and frogs are eaten as well. The dark brown plumage is marked with white, teardrop-shaped streaks over the neck and mantle. The call is a loud, wailing scream, given mostly at night and carrying far across the marsh. In flight the legs trail behind the body and the wingbeat has a short, jerky upward flick. The nest is a coarse structure in dense marsh growth or low over the water.