The brown-cheeked rail or eastern water rail (''Rallus indicus'') is a species of bird in the family Rallidae. It breeds in northern Mongolia, eastern Siberia, northeast China, Korea and northern Japan, and winters in southeast Asia.Taylor & van Perlo (2000) p. 29 It used to be considered a subspecies of the water rail.

Description

The species differs from the slightly smaller nominate form through its paler upperparts, brown-tinged underparts and a brown stripe through the eye. Compared to R. a. korejewi, it is darker above, has a browner breast, white on the throat and a more obvious brown eyestripe. As indicated above, it has different vocalisations to the other forms, and is now usually given full species status, although its behaviour, nest and eggs are identical to those of other subspecies of water rail. In addition to its distinctive plumage, it has very different vocalisations from the water rail, and it was considered a separate species in early works, including the first edition (1898) of ''

Fauna of British India Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoo ...

'', but later demoted to a subspecies by

E. C. Stuart Baker Edward Charles Stuart Baker CIE OBE FZS FLS (1864 – 16 April 1944) was a British ornithologist and police officer. He catalogued the birds of India and produced the second edition of the ''Fauna of British India'' which included the introd ...

in the second edition (1929). It was restored as a full species, the eastern water rail, ''R. indicus'', by

Pamela Rasmussen Pamela Cecile Rasmussen (born October 16, 1959) is an American ornithologist and expert on Asian birds. She was formerly a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and is based at the Michigan State University. She ...

in her ''

Birds of South Asia Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight ...

'' (2005). Rasmussen, an expert on Asian birds, also renamed the other forms as the western water rail. Her treatment has gained acceptance, and is followed in ''Birds of Malaysia and Singapore'' (2010). A 2010 study of molecular phylogeny further supported the possibility of specific status for ''R. a. indicus'', which is estimated to have diverged from the western forms around 534,000 years ago. The paper also suggested that the differences between the three other races were clinal, and that they should all be merged into ''R. a. aquaticus''. The call is quite different from that of the water rail. The courtship call, again given throughout the year, is a sharp piping ''kyu'', longer and clearer than that of the European race. The song is a series of metallic slurred ''shrink, shrink'' notes, about two per second, and repeated after a short pause. The eastern race does not respond to recorded announcement calls of nominate ''R. a. aquaticus''. The average weight of wind-dried nests of ''R. indicus'' in Japan was 95 g (3.4 oz).

Distribution and habitat

The species is mainly migratory, wintering in southern Japan, eastern China and northern Borneo. It is uncommon in northern parts of Bangladesh, Burma, Laos, and northern and central Thailand, and does not normally reach further south in mainland southeast Asia. Migrants have been recorded on Sri Lanka in the past, although on the Indian mainland they are found mainly in the northern regions, with a few records from as far south as Mumbai. On arrival in India, rails may be so exhausted that they can be caught by hand. The breeding birds on the Japanese island of Hokkaido mostly migrate well south including to Korea but a few remain during winter in the coastal marshes of Honshu.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3454180 Rallus Birds of Manchuria Birds described in 1849 Taxa named by Edward Blyth