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Paint-billed Crake | Mustelirallus erythrops
Roodsnavelporseleinhoen | Polluela piquirroja
The Paint-billed Crake is a small, compact rail with a grey head and breast, barred flanks and a greenish-yellow bill with a bright red base. It lives hidden in wet grassland, rice fields and marsh edges and is mainly active at dusk and at night. In the guide area it occurs only in Costa Rica and Panama, at the northern edge of a large South American range.
Voice
A series of croaking, frog-like notes, fast at first and then slowing, like kwaa-kwaa-kwaa-kwah, and a long, hoarse churr. Calls mainly in the evening and at night, and most in the rainy season.
Recording: Jacob Guachisaca Salínas — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
18–20 cm. Face, neck, breast and belly are slate-grey. The upperparts are plain olive-brown. Flanks, lower belly and undertail coverts are black with narrow white bars. The short, fairly stout bill is greenish-yellow with a bright red patch at the base of both mandibles. The eye is red, the legs coral-red. The sexes are alike. Juveniles are duller, with a browner breast and a darker bill without obvious red. Flies short and low, with legs dangling.
Confusion species
Sora Porzana carolina is slightly larger, with a black face and throat in adults, a yellow bill without red and white-streaked upperparts. Grey-breasted Crake Laterallus exilis is smaller, with a chestnut nape and barred wing coverts. White-throated Crake Laterallus albigularis has a white throat, a rufous breast and a dark bill. Uniform Crake Amaurolimnas concolor is larger and entirely warm brown.
Habitat
Wet and flooded grassland, rice fields, shallow grassy and sedgy marshes, ditches and damp pasture, mainly in the lowlands and lower hills. Also occurs in seasonally wet ground. Forages at the edge of vegetation and on muddy patches for insects, worms, snails and seeds. The nest is a cup of grass and leaves on or just above the ground in dense vegetation.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
In the guide area only in Costa Rica and Panama, scarce and local. In Costa Rica mainly on the Pacific side, in Guanacaste and southern Puntarenas, and locally in the Central Valley; in Panama scattered, including Bocas del Toro, Coclé and around the Panama Canal. Presence varies from year to year and the species is probably often missed. Outside the guide area in much of South America, from Colombia and Venezuela to Argentina, and on the Galápagos.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Rice fields and wet pastures in south-western Costa Rica offer the best chance, especially at dusk and in rain, when birds appear at the edge of the vegetation. The croaking call usually gives the species away before it is seen.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species has a large range in South America. In Costa Rica and Panama it is scarce and local; rice fields and other wet farmland provide habitat there.
Scientific name
Mustelirallus erythrops | (Sclater, 1867) (GBIF: Neocrex erythrops)
Sclater described the species in 1867 as Porzana erythrops; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Mustelirallus was introduced in 1858 by Bonaparte. Mustelirallus combines Latin mustela 'weasel' with Rallus 'rail', after the weasel-like colour and skulking habits. erythrops is Greek, from eruthros 'red' and ōps 'face, eye', after the red eyes and red base of the bill. The specimen the first description was based on came from Lima, Peru.