Eupetidae Rail-babbler
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Introduction
The sole member of this family is a retiring and elusive denizen of mature forests in southern Asia. Many people who have spent a great deal of time in this species’ habitat still dream of glimpsing this elegant bird, with its distinctive long-legged, small-headed profile, walking sedately into a gap in the jungle green. The Rail-babbler often announces its presence by a simple long whistled call, delivered by bowing its neck near the ground and inflating paired blue-purple air sacs on either side of the neck. That call is so similar to the calls of some pittas sharing the forests that hopeful observers cannot even be sure they are hearing this most mysterious resident.
Habitat
Rail-babblers live in mature forest with a relatively open understory. Their habitat occurs primarily from sea level to mid-elevations, and they only rarely live in montane forests.
Diet and Foraging
Eupetids feed mainly on insects and other arthropods, including beetles, spiders, and cicadas. They forage by walking, and often running, over the ground and turning over leaves and fallen branches.
Breeding
Very little is known of the breeding biology of the Rail-babbler, owing in large part to its shy and secretive nature. Only a single nest and clutch have been described, with no description of behavior of adults at the nest. The nest consisted of a loose, open cup built of plant material resting on dead leaves and stalks about 30 cm above the ground. Clutch size was 2 eggs. Nothing was reported of parental care or chick growth.
Conservation Status
The populations of this elusive songbird are extremely difficult to assess, but the scattered distribution of known localities for the species and what appear to be small populations at many of them, together with the ongoing pressure on south Asian forest habitats, justify watchful conservation concern (100%; 1 NT).
Systematics History
Eupetidae is part of a small clade of oscine passerines within a group we call the “basal passerid oscines.” The relationships of the Rail-babbler were long mysterious, with proposed affinities to Timaliidae sensu lato, Cinclosomatidae, or Psophodidae. Molecular phylogenetic evidence indicates that Eupetidae is not at all closely related to any of these groups, but instead is likely sister to Chaetopidae, and these two as a clade are likely sister to Picathartidae and Chaetopidae (Jønsson et al. 2007, Jønsson et al. 2011). The larger relationships of Eupetidae have not been studied explicitly, but those relationships are best indicated by the relationships of the better-studied Picathartidae.
Conservation Status
Least Concern |
0%
|
---|---|
Near Threatened |
100%
|
Vulnerable |
0%
|
Endangered |
0%
|
Critically Endangered |
0%
|
Extinct in the Wild |
0%
|
Extinct |
0%
|
Not Evaluated |
0%
|
Data Deficient |
0%
|
Unknown |
0%
|
Data provided by IUCN (2023) Red List. More information