Appearance:

Largest rail in VP. Clearly bigger than coot, and almost twice the size of Moorhen. Generally unmistakable with its dark, violet blue plumage, long, robust legs and heavy bill. Under tail coverts white. Red frontal shield and bill, pinkish red legs. Immature birds with duller coloured legs, duller plumage and faintly greyish/whitish underparts. Trailing legs obvious in flight. Swims readily.

Sound:

Rich repertiore and very vocal. Sounds range from soft, mewing and laughing to hard, extremely shrill trills. Generally louder, and shriller than congeners. Often merges into, or starts with diagnostic, extremely hard trill "krrrrriiit".

Contact 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

Appearance:

Large, long-tailed eagle. Juveniles unmistakable, with white base of tail, dark terminal band and base of flight-feathers forming a white wing panel. Adult: dark brown with golden tinge to head. Variable amount of white wing panels and base of tail in intermediate plumages. Differs from other eagles by; wings held in shallow V when soaring, narrow wing base, flight feathers paler than coverts and body. Flight pattern elegant with a handful deep beats and typical alternate glides.

Sound:

Not very vocal. A short, clear, yelping "kew". Sometimes in series in mellow tempo. Also mewing, Buzzard-like calls.

Contact 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:Creative Commons,www.xeno-canto.org,Stein Ø. Nilsen,http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/