Red-and-white crake
{{Short description|Species of bird}}
{{Use American English|date=November 2022}}
{{Speciesbox
| name = Red-and-white crake
| image = Laterallus leucopyrrhus -Intervales State Park, Sao Paulo, Brazil-8.jpg
| image_caption = At Intervales State Park, São Paulo state, Brazil
| status = LC
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| genus = Rufirallus
| species = leucopyrrhus
| authority = (Vieillot, 1819)
| synonyms = Laterallus leucopyrrhus
Rallus leucopyrrhus
| range_map = Laterallus leucopyrrhus map.svg
}}
The red-and-white crake (Rufirallus leucopyrrhus) is a species of bird in subfamily Rallinae of family Rallidae, the rails, gallinules, and coots. It is found in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. This species was formerly placed in the genus Laterallus.
Taxonomy
The red-and-white crake was formally described in 1819 by the French ornithologist Louis Vieillot based on a specimen collected by the Spanish military officer Félix de Azara in Paraguay. Vieillot placed the new species with the rails in the genus Rallus and coined the binomial name Rallus leucopyrrhus.{{ cite book | last=Vieillot | first=Louis Pierre | author-link=Louis Pierre Vieillot | year=1819 | title=Nouveau dictionnaire d'histoire naturelle, appliquée aux arts, à l'agriculture, à l'économie rurale et domestique, à la médecine, etc. | edition=Nouvelle édition | volume=28 | location=Paris | publisher=Deterville | page=550 | language=French | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/19430523 }}{{ cite book | editor-last=Peters | editor-first=James Lee | editor-link=James L. Peters | year=1934 | title=Check-List of Birds of the World | volume=2 | publisher=Harvard University Press | place=Cambridge, Massachusetts | page=192 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14483005 }} The species was formerly placed in the genus Laterallus but in 2023 a molecular phylogenetic study found that the genus was polyphyletic.{{Cite journal | last1=Depino | first1=E.A. | last2=Pérez-Emán | first2=J.L. | last3=Bonaccorso | first3=E. | last4=Areta | first4=J.I. | date=2023 | title=Evolutionary history of New World crakes (Aves: Rallidae) with emphasis on the tribe Laterallini | journal=Zoologica Scripta | volume=52 | issue=4 | doi=10.1111/zsc.12595}} In the reorganization of the species to create monophyletic genera, the red-and-white crake was placed with four other crakes in the genus Rufirallus that had been introduced in 1856 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte.{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | editor3-last=Rasmussen | editor3-first=Pamela | editor3-link=Pamela C. Rasmussen | date=February 2025 | title=Flufftails, finfoots, rails, trumpeters, cranes, limpkin | work=IOC World Bird List Version 15.1 | url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/new/bow/flufftails/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=2 March 2025}} The genus name combines the Latin rufus meaning "rufous" with the genus Rallus that had been introduced by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 for the rails.{{ cite web | last=Jobling | first=James A. | title=Rufirallus | work=The Key to Scientific Names | url=https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/key-to-scientific-names/search?q=Rufirallus | publisher=Cornell Lab of Ornithology | access-date=28 February 2025 }} The specific epithet leucopyrrhus combines the Ancient Greek λευκος/leukos meaning "white" with πυρρος/purrhos meaning "flame-coloured".{{ cite web | last=Jobling | first=James A. | title=leucopyrrhus | work=The Key to Scientific Names | url=https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/key-to-scientific-names/search?q=leucopyrrhus | publisher=Cornell Lab of Ornithology | access-date=1 March 2025 }} The species is considered to be monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
Description
The red-and-white crake is {{convert|14|to|17|cm|in|abbr=on}} long and weighs {{convert|34|to|52|g|oz|abbr=on}} with an average of about {{convert|45|g|oz|abbr=on}}). The sexes are alike. Their head, neck and back are bright chestnut with a sharp demarcation from their white throat and breast. The rest of their upperparts are dark olive brown, and their {{birdgloss|flanks}} are barred black and white. Their unique undertail coverts as a whole have a black center and white edges. Their legs are bright coral red to salmon-pink and their bill is black with a yellow base and {{birdgloss|mandible}} and a light green to light blue tip. The song is "a prolonged throaty chatter; also described as a resonant trill", sometimes given in duet. An alarm call is "a low cui whistle" and a call believed to be aggressive is a "harsh chrrrrrr...".{{cite web | last1=Areta | first1=J.I. | last2=Depino | first2=E. | date=2024 | title=Red-and-white Crake (Rufirallus leucopyrrhus), version 1.1 | editor-last=Schulenberg | editor-first=T.S. | work=Birds of the World | location=Ithaca, NY, USA | publisher=Cornell Lab of Ornithology | url=https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.rawcra1.01.1 | access-date=3 March 2025 | url-access=subscription }}
Distribution and habitat
The red-and-white crake is found in southeastern Brazil from Río de Janeiro state south through eastern Paraguay and much of Uruguay into northeastern Argentina as far as northern Buenos Aires Province. It inhabits a variety of wet landscapes that generally have shallow water to moist soil, tall or matted grasses or reeds, and often shrubs, thickets, and scattered small trees. It appears to be a year-round resident throughout its range.
Behavior
=Feeding=
=Breeding=
The red-and-white crake's breeding season in Argentina appears to span from October to February but is not known elsewhere. Both sexes build the nest, which is a ball of grass, herbs, and reeds attached to marsh vegetation up to about {{convert|1|m|ft|sigfig=1|abbr=on}} above the ground. It has a side entrance. The typical clutch size is three eggs. In captivity the incubation period is about 24 days and young are independent in about four weeks.
Conservation status
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed the red-and-white crake as being of Least Concern. It has a fairly large range, but its population size and trend are not known. No immediate threats have been identified. However, "habitat destruction by urban growth, land filling and livestock grazing" have a direct effect.