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:

Slightly bigger and more heavy build than Ptarmigan, with clearly heavier bill. Summer plumage warm brown above with white belly, showing a warmer brown than Ptarmigan. Winter plumage all white in both sexes, except for black tail. Males lacking black lores. Wings always white in all plumages in nominate ssp. lagopus, and brown in ssp. scotica.

Sound:

Very characteristic calls: "Kuwa -Kuwa -Kuwa" (go back!) Also: "kauw kauwkkkrrrkekekekekeke" with a short pause after first "kauw", then a decelerating cackle, often followed by the "go back" call.

Song:

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

CC

CC-sound:Terje Kolaas, Licence,Link.