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Gray-throated Rail Canirallus oculeus Scientific name definitions

Barry Taylor
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated January 1, 1996

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Originally Appeared in

HBW Alive

Field Identification

30 cm. Plumage unlike that of any other rail in its habitat. White spots on remiges, and pale spots or bars on wing-coverts, would be obvious in flight but species is unlikely to flush; underwing also boldly spotted white. Sexes alike. Immature has forehead, face and throat brown instead of grey, upperparts with russet wash and underparts dark reddish brown.

Systematics History

Birds E from Cameroon sometimes treated as separate race, batesi, but considered to differ too little from other populations to merit subspecific status. Monotypic.

Subspecies

Monotypic.

Distribution

Sierra Leone E across N DRCongo to W Uganda (Semliki National Park) (1) and SW to coastal Congo. Occurrence in N Central African Republic (Manovo-Gounda St Floris National Park) doubtful.

Habitat

Primary and secondary lowland rain forest, occurring in ravines and along creeks and forest streams overhung by trees and bordered by rank undergrowth; also flooded or swampy forest, including areas with mud, tall arrowroot plants and tree ferns, and marshes within forest regions (Ghana). Records from “floodplain” in savanna-park zone of N Central African Republic very doubtful.

Movement

None recorded.

Diet and Foraging

Skinks, snails, slugs, small crabs, millipedes and insects including ants, caterpillars and other larvae, and beetles. Seen foraging on half-dry bed of small forest stream by removing dead leaves with jerking movements of the bill.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Song lasts 2–3 minutes; starts with hollow notes like double drumbeats; after 20 seconds intersperses soft “dou” or “douah” notes, which increase towards end of call as drumbeats fade; far-carrying and ventriloquial; given both day and night, with peak at dawn. Also loud, explosive booming of 3–6 notes on descending scale of half-tones “oue-oue-oue...”, lasting 0·5–1 seconds. Probable alarm calls rendered “ptik-ptik-ptik...” , “douk-douk-douk...” and muffled “thouk-thouk...”.

Breeding

Breeds during rains: Cameroon, Feb, Apr, Jul; Zaire, breeding condition Sept, Nov, Dec. 2 nests described: one, of broad grass leaves, on a stump in swampy bottom of ravine among Raphia palms and Canna-like plants; the other among roots of uprooted tree over stream bank. Eggs 2; downy chicks blackish brown.

Conservation Status

Conservation status on Birdlife LC Least Concern

Not globally threatened (Least Concern). Regarded as locally numerous only in Congo, elsewhere apparently uncommon or rare; however, its extreme secretiveness, and lack of familiarity of most observers with its calls, render it very easy to overlook and make its abundance difficult to assess. Forest destruction must have affected its numbers over much of range; species probably extinct in Nigeria and has not been recorded in W Uganda in recent years.

Distribution of the Gray-throated Rail - Range Map
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Distribution of the Gray-throated Rail

eBird and Macaulay Library

Recommended Citation

Taylor, B. (2020). Gray-throated Rail (Canirallus oculeus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.gytrai1.01
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