Paint-billed Crake

About the Paint-billed Crake

The paint-billed crake (Mustelirallus erythrops) is a species of bird in the subfamily Rallinae of the rail, crake, and coot family Rallidae. It is found in Costa Rica, Panama, every mainland South American country except Chile and Uruguay.

The paint-billed crake was initially placed in genus Porzana and later moved to genus Neocrex to join the Colombian crake (N. colombiana). The two have been sometimes been considered conspecific. In 2015 the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society (AOS) and the Clements taxonomy moved both species to genus Mustelirallus. In 2023 the International Ornithological Committee (IOC) moved them to genus Mustelirallus. However, the North American Classification Committee of AOS (NACC), and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) retain them in Neocrex.

This article uses the IOC/NACC/HBW genus. The IOC, HBW, and Clements agree that the paint-billed crake has two subspecies, the nominate N. e. erythrops and N. e. olivascens. The paint-billed crake is 18 to 20 cm (7.1 to 7.9 in) long and weighs about 40 to 70 g (1.4 to 2.5 oz). One specimen had... Wikipedia →