White-browed Crake Poliolimnas cinereus Scientific name definitions

15–20 cm; unsexed 40–62·5 (52) g; wingspan 27 cm. Small, slim-bodied crake  with relatively long legs  and toes  . Easily distinguished from sympatric crakes by striking diagnostic face pattern. In fresh plumage forehead and crown grey, becoming black  with wear  . Sexes alike. Immature apparently like adult. Juvenile shows adult plumage pattern but grey and black on head replaced by brown, and white facial stripes tinged yellow-brown, making facial pattern less distinct; grey of neck, breast and flanks replaced by buff to pale brown; bill has thin orange band at base; legs and feet olive, blue-green or light blue-grey. A reference to young being “mottled rufous all over” possibly refers to down mixed with emerging juvenile plumage.

SE Asia and Greater Sundas through Philippines, Sulawesi, Moluccas and Lesser Sundas to New Guinea and N Australia, and E through Micronesia and Melanesia (S to Vanuatu and New Caledonia) to WC Polynesia (Fiji and Samoa). Formerly also Volcano (Iwo) Is, S of Japan.

Well vegetated coastal and terrestrial wetlands , both freshwater and saline, especially those with abundant floating vegetation ; habitat may be seasonal or ephemeral. Inhabits swamps, marshes, creeks, rivers, pools, inundations, lakes, dams and sewage ponds. Uses flooded areas , and observed among flood debris. Also occurs in grassland  and agricultural areas, including grazed land, rice fields and taro patches; thickets, mature or degraded forest, palm groves and mangroves. Occurs in lowlands; rarely up to 1830 m in New Guinea.

Imperfectly known; considered resident over much of range but probably partially migratory in some regions. Regarded as wet-season migrant in N Australia: although recorded throughout year, more records in summer months and apparently absent from some areas in winter; regular migration along wetlands of Cape York suggested; occurs on islands in Torres Strait, where 112 birds struck Booby I lighthouse between Dec 1975 and Jun 1976. Vagrant to Bikini (Marshall Is), Hong Kong and Assam, India (1 Gogoi, D. and Phukan, P.J. (2016). White-browed Crake Amaurornis cinerea in Maguri-Motapung Beel, Assam, India: a new species for South Asia. Indian Birds. 11(3): 79–80. Close ).

Earthworms, slugs, leeches, insects, water spiders, frog spawn, and small fish; also seeds and leaves of aquatic plants. Forages at mud patches and along margins of water courses, both in and out of cover; frequently forages on floating vegetation  , dashing around in stop-start manner; also catches flying insects. Often swims, gleaning from water surface; also floats quietly with neck extended, picking up insects with short, sudden thrusts of bill. Occasionally runs up marsh vegetation or along branches. Active throughout day, particularly in early morning and evening.

Common call a loud, nasal, chattering, rapidly repeated “chika”  , made by both members of pair, and sometimes by several pairs in response to disturbance. Also sharp, loud “kek-kro” while feeding; quiet, repeated “charr-r” of alarm; and various plaintive, squeaky cries.

Borneo, Apr–Jun; Philippines, Jul–Aug, and downy young Oct; New Guinea, Dec–Mar, May, chicks Jun and Oct–Nov; Solomon Is, Jan, Jun–Jul, Sept; Vanuatu, possibly Sept–Mar; Australia, Jan–May, also small young in Sept–Nov, N Queensland. Monogamous; may remain paired outside breeding season; possibly permanently territorial. Nest a saucer-shaped platform of rushes, coarse grass or herbage, lined grass and other fine material; built on ground, on trampled blades of tussock, or in grassy marsh vegetation over water, sometimes more than 1 m deep; once in fork of mangrove tree; growing vegetation often woven into thin canopy. External diameter c. 15 cm, depth c. 3·5 cm; built up to 1 m above ground; runway of reed stems often leads from ground to nest rim. Usually 4 eggs  (3–7), laid at daily intervals; incubation c. 18 days, by both sexes; downy chick coal black; a large chick, with emergent body feathers and remiges, had black bill with broad pink-white saddle between nostrils, dark brown iris, black eyering, and grey legs and feet; young fed and cared for by both parents for c. 4 weeks; post-juvenile moult probably begins shortly after fledging. In Australia has 1, sometimes 2, broods per year.

Not globally threatened (Least Concern). Less shy and elusive than most rails and formerly regarded as locally fairly common to fairly abundant throughout most of range, except in Palau, Mariana and Caroline Is, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa. Putative form brevipes, confined to Volcano Is (S of Japan), generally regarded as having been extinct since 1911, although said to have been observed in 1924/25; extinction probably caused by introduced rats and cats. Species apparently disappeared from Guam in 1970s concurrent with the draining and development of many of the island's freshwater wetland habitats. Currently widespread and locally common in Greater Sundas and Philippines ; local and uncommon in Vanuatu; status uncertain in Australia, but local and apparently not generally common; status elsewhere possibly largely unchanged. Range may be expanding into SW China, where in 2012–2013 several observations in Guangxi and one in S Sichuan (2 Yu, L.-J., Jiang, A.-W. and Zhou, F. (2015). Update on the distribution range of the white-browed crake (Porzana cinerea): a new record from mainland China. Zoological Research 36(1): 59–61. Close ); it may also be expanding in Indochina (3 Duckworth, J.W., and Evans, T.D. (2007). First record of White-browed Crake (Porzana cinerea) for Laos and its current range in Southeast Asia. Wilson Journal of Ornithology. 119(2): 253–258. Close ).