Appearance:

Fairly large rail with secretive behaviour. Distinguished by long red bill, brownish upperparts, slate grey underparts, and coarsely barred flanks. White and unmarked vent often visible due to frequently used posture with flirted tail. Long legs and toes visible in flight.

Sound:

Varied but distinct. Most heard is the territorial song consisting of short, nasal, sharp grunts "tuck- tuck-tuck", ending with a drawn-out trill rising and falling in pitch "kiiiieeerrrr". Another diagnostic call is heard from excited birds; a longer pig-like shrilling squeal, with waning repetitions. A bit like someone squeezing a rubber toy. Also short and sharp calls "kvii".

Song:

Pig call:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

Sounds:Recorded by Edmunds Racinskis

Appearance:

Differs from Ringed Plover by bright yellow eyering (adults),only faint wing-bars, long tertials (covering the primaries) and slimmer more elongated body shape. Apart from the diagnostic eyering, adults show white band across crown, brown-grey legs (not orange) and dark bill. Juveniles also show only faint wing-bars, supercilium is faint, especially behind the eye, lower part of "mask" is pointed and bill is slimmer.

Sound:

Quite different from Ringed Plover. Sharper sounding, lacking Ringed's soft tone. Often starts with a rolling "r". Common calls are a two syllable "krrll-uuit" with a rising pitch or just a sharp, rolling "krrri-krrri". Also a longer rolling "krree-looo" with pitch rising in first syllable and falling in the second.

Contact, and alarm calls:

Distribution:

Xeno-canto: map

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

Sounds:Recorded by Lauri Hallikainen,http://www.xeno-canto.org ,CC license