Rufous-faced crake
{{short description|Species of bird}}
{{Use American English|date=November 2022}}
{{speciesbox
| name = Rufous-faced crake
| image = Laterallus xenopterus - Rufous-faced crake; Dourado, São Paulo, Brazil.jpg
| status = VU
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| genus = Rufirallus
| species = xenopterus
| authority = (Conover, 1934)
| synonyms = Laterallus xenopterus
| range_map = Laterallus xenopterus map.svg
}}
The rufous-faced crake (Rufirallus xenopterus) is a species of bird in subfamily Rallinae of family Rallidae, the rails, gallinules, and coots. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay. This species was formerly placed in the genus Laterallus.
Taxonomy
The rufous-faced crake was formally described in 1934 by the American amateur ornithologist Boardman Conover based on a specimen collected near the town of Horqueta in central Paraguay. Conover assigned the species to the genus Laterallus and coined the binomial name Laterallus xenopterus.{{ cite journal | last=Conover | first=B.H. | author-link=Boardman Conover | date=1934 | title=A new species of rail from Paraguay | journal=The Auk | volume=51 | pages=365-366 | url=https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/auk/v051n03/p0365-p0366.pdf }}{{ cite book | editor1-last=Dickinson | editor1-first=E.C. | editor1-link=Edward C. Dickinson | editor2-last=Remsen | editor2-first=J.V. Jr. | editor2-link=James Van Remsen Jr. | year=2013 | title=The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World | volume=1: Non-passerines | edition=4th | location=Eastbourne, UK | publisher=Aves Press | isbn=978-0-9568611-0-8 | page=152 | url=https://archive.org/details/howardmoorecompl0001howa/page/152/mode/1up | url-access=registration }} A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2023 found that the genus Laterallus 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 rufous-faced 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 xenopterus combines the Ancient Greek ξενος/xenos meaning "different" with -πτερος/-pteros meaning "-winged".{{ cite web | last=Jobling | first=James A. | title=xenopterus | work=The Key to Scientific Names | url=https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/key-to-scientific-names/search?q=xenopterus | publisher=Cornell Lab of Ornithology | access-date=2 March 2025 }} The species is considered to be monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
Description
The rufous-faced crake is about {{convert|14|cm|in|abbr=on}} long and weighs about {{convert|52|g|oz|abbr=on}}. The sexes are alike. They have a blue-gray bill, legs, and feet. They have a rufous face, hindneck, and upper back; a white throat and belly; and a buffy ochraceous foreneck and breast. Their upperwing coverts, secondaries, and scapulars have black and white bars as do their flanks. Their tail and undertail coverts are black.{{cite web | last1=Taylor | first1=B. | last2=Boesman | first2=P.F.D. | last3=de Juana | first3=E. | last4=Sharpe | first4=C.J. | year=2024 | title=Rufous-faced Crake (Rufirallus xenopterus), version 1.1 | editor1-last=del Hoyo | editor1-first=J. | editor2-last=Elliott | editor2-first=A. | editor3-last=Sargatal | editor3-first=J. | editor4-last=Christie | editor4-first=D.A. | editor5-last=de Juana | editor5-first=E. | work=Birds of the World | location=Ithaca, NY, USA | publisher=Cornell Lab of Ornithology | url=https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.rufcra1.01.1 | access-date=2 March 2024 | url-access=subscription }} The rufous-faced crake's song is "a drawn-out, slightly descending trill". It also makes "[s]oft call notes "piú piú'".
Distribution and habitat
The rufous-faced crake is found in northeastern Bolivia's Beni Department, in several states in south-central Brazil, and in central Paraguay. It is known from perhaps a dozen widely scattered locations in those areas but "given the suitable habitat in intervening areas and elsewhere[...]the species may be more widespread and less local than suspected."{{cite journal |last=Brace |first=Robin |last2=Hornbuckle |first2=Jon |last3=St. Pierre |first3=Paul |date=1998 |title=Rufous-faced Crake Laterallus xenopterus: a new species for Bolivia, with notes on its identification, distribution, ecology and conservation |url=https://www.neotropicalbirdclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Cotinga-09-1998-76-80.pdf |journal=Cotinga |volume=9 |pages=76–80 |access-date= November 29, 2022}} It inhabits marshes, especially the zones of moist to shallowly flooded tussocky or matted grass.
Behavior
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=Breeding=
Conservation status
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) originally assessed the rufous-faced crake as Threatened but since 1994 has rated it as Vulnerable. Its known areas of habitation are small and widely scattered, and its estimated population of 2500 to 10,000 mature individuals is believed to be decreasing. Loss of habitat by conversion to agriculture (corn and soybeans) and silviculture (Eucalyptus and pines) has played a major role in the species' decline. "The most significant threat is possibly the widespread use of pesticides, fertilisers and other chemicals."