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:

Fairly large warbler with long tail, giving the whole bird an elongated look. Tertials, secondaries and coverts with rufous fringes in contrast to greyish brown back. Underparts pale with buff flanks. Outer tail feathers white. Steep forehead and white throat. Males with slate grey head.

Sound:

Variable. Usually recognized by fairly concise phrase, usually with three ascending and descending parts. Often ends with more indistinct mimicry, or subsong. May omit characteristic phrase and sing more cryptic for periods of time, and may be more difficult to identify. Warning call a harsh, drawn "weeet", usually with accented ending, sometimes rising abruptly in pitch.

Alarm call, song:

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