Invisible Rail Gallirallus wallacii Scientific name definitions

35 cm. Sexes alike. Rather distinctive large, flightless rail of striking appearance, with very dark slate and dark brown plumage, and bright red bare parts including eye-ring and frontal shield; bill long and heavy. Immature and juvenile undescribed.

Halmahera (N Moluccas); recently recorded on Obi, where status unclear (1 Mittermeier, J. C., H. E. W. Cottee-Jones, E. C. Purba, N. M. Ashuri, E. Hesdianti, and J. Supriatna (2013). A survey of the avifauna of Obi island, North Moluccas, Indonesia. Forktail 29:128–137. Close ).

Dense, impenetrable, swampy thickets, particularly areas of heavy sago swamp; also the edges of marshes, preferring peninsulas of land jutting out into marshy expanses. A report that it occurs in alang-alang (Imperata cylin­drica) grass is thought to have resulted from confusion with Amaurornis moluccana.

None recorded.

Diet and feeding habits virtually unknown. Mainly young plant shoots and beetles recorded.

Described as a low drumbeat interspersed with a loud scream.

A nest found in Nov in Aketajawe Lolobata National Park was a shallow depression on top of a rotten stump of a ballnut tree (Calophyllum inophyllum) c. 1 m above the ground; nest base of fine decayed wood chips irregularly lined with dry leaves; two recently hatched chicks were entirely covered in black down, with conspicuous, sharp and curved white pollux nails and strikingly pinkish bare skin of the index; the eyes had a sky-blue pupil and grey iris, but colourless eye-ring; the blunt bill was black with a pale tip; the legs were brown with black streaks (2 Bashari, H. and van Balen, B. (2011). First breeding record of the Drummer Rail Habroptila wallacii. BirdingASIA. 15: 20–22. Close ). No further information.

VULNERABLE. Probably scarce; a report that it was locally common in grassland is believed to have resulted from confusion with the common Amaurornis moluccana. Only recent records are of specimens collected in early 1980s and early 1990s, and a sighting in a sago swamp in 1995. Threatened by habitat destruction, and sago swamps have been extensively destroyed on Halmahera. Snared for food by local people and caught with dogs; species is also likely to be vulnerable to other introduced predators.