The white-breasted waterhen (''Amaurornis phoenicurus'') is a waterbird of the rail and crake family,
Rallidae
The rails, or Rallidae, are a large cosmopolitan family of small- to medium-sized, ground-living birds. The family exhibits considerable diversity and includes the crakes, coots, and gallinules. Many species are associated with wetlands, althou ...
, that is widely distributed across
South and
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...
. They are dark slaty birds with a clean white face, breast and belly. They are somewhat bolder than most other rails and are often seen stepping slowly with their tail cocked upright in open marshes or even drains near busy roads. They are largely
crepuscular in activity and during the breeding season, just after the first rains, make loud and repetitive croaking calls.
Description
![AmaurornisPhoenicurusGould](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/AmaurornisPhoenicurusGould.jpg)
Adult white-breasted waterhens have mainly dark grey upperparts and flanks, and a white face, neck and breast. The lower belly and undertail are cinnamon or white coloured. The body is flattened laterally to allow easier passage through the reeds or undergrowth. They have long toes, a short tail and a yellow bill and legs. Sexes are similar but females measure slightly smaller. Immature birds are much duller versions of the adults. The downy chicks are black, as with all
rails
Rail or rails may refer to:
Rail transport
*Rail transport and related matters
*Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway
Arts and media Film
* ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini
* ''Rail'' ( ...
.
Several subspecies are named for the populations that are widely distributed. The nominate subspecies is described from Sri Lanka but is often widened to include ''chinensis'' of mainland India and adjoining regions in Asia, west to Arabia and east nearly to Japan. The remaining subspecies are those from islands and include ''insularis'' of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, ''midnicobaricus'' of the central Nicobars, ''leucocephala'' of Car Nicobar, ''maldivus'' of the Maldives, ''javanicus'' of Java and ''leucomelanus'' of Sulawesi and the Lesser Sundas.
Distribution and habitat
Their breeding habitat is
marsh
A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found a ...
es across tropical
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
from
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
east to
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
. They are mainly seen in the plains but have been known from the higher hills such as in Nainital (1300m) and the High Range (1500m) in Kerala. These large long rails are permanent residents throughout their range. They make short distance movements and are known to colonize new areas. They have been noted as some of the early colonizers on the volcanic island of
Rakata
Rakata ( ), also called Greater Krakatau, is a partially collapsed stratovolcano on the Indonesian island of Krakatoa ( id, Krakatau) in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Sumatra and Java. Standing tall, it was the largest and southernmo ...
. Although most often found near freshwater, they are also found near brackish water and even the seashore when there is no freshwater as on the volcanic Barren Island in the Andamans.
[
]
Behaviour and ecology
These birds are usually seen singly or in pairs as they forage slowly along the edge of a waterbody mainly on the ground but sometimes clambering up low vegetation. The tail is held up and jerked as they walk. They probe with their bill in mud or shallow water, also picking up food by sight. They mainly eat insect
Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...
s (large numbers of beetles have been recorded[), small ]fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...
(which are often carefully washed in water), aquatic invertebrates and grains or seed
A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...
s such as those of '' Pithecolobium dulce''. They may sometimes feed in deeper water in the manner of a moorhen.
The nesting season is mainly June to October but varies locally. They nest in a dry location on the ground in marsh vegetation, laying 6-7 eggs
Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...
. Courtship involves bowing, billing and nibbling. The eggs hatch in about 19 days. Both sexes incubate the eggs and take care of the chicks. Chicks often dive underwater to escape predation.[ Adults are said to build a roost or brood nest where young chicks and the adults roost.
Many rails are very secretive, but white-breasted waterhens are often seen out in the open. They can be noisy especially at dawn and dusk, with loud croaky calls. The Andamans population ''insularis'' is said to make duck like ''quack'' calls.]
In culture
Local names of this bird are often formed by onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', '' ...
(based on the sound it makes), for example ''ruak-ruak'' in Malay and in Sinhala.; although differently formed local names are also not uncommon, such as "Dahuk" in Bengali (used in Bangladesh and the Bengali-speaking areas of India), "Dauk" (ডাউক) in Assamese, "Gur-gu-aa" in Boro and "Vo-kurwak" in Karbi. In Odisha
Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...
it is called as "Daahuka" in Odia. In Maharashtra it is called as ''pankombadi'' or ''kuak kombadi'' in Marathi. In Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...
they are called ''kulakozhi''. They are also called “kanbili” in The Maldives. . In Kannada
Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...
they are called 'hundukoli' ( ಹುಂಡುಕೋಳಿ). In Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
, they are called ''kaanaangkozi''.
In Cebuano, it is known as ''tikúgas'', it has cognates
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical eff ...
in several related languages in Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
which refer to the Taiwan bamboo partridge (e.g. ''tikolac'' in Amis).
The naturalist writer '' Eha'' humorously describes the call of this species:
"''It began with loud harsh roars which might have been elicited from a bear by roasting it slowly over a large fire, then suddenly changed to a clear note repeated like the coo of a dove.''"
Gallery
File:White-breasted Waterhen AMSM4814.jpg, White-breasted Waterhen carrying a mollusc, Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India
File:White-breasted Waterhen AMSM4808.jpg, White-breasted Waterhen
File:Dikaiosp 211031 1262.jpg, White-breasted waterhen stalks a dragonfly in Tampines Eco-Green, Singapore
References
External links
White-breasted waterhen in Sungei Buloh Nature Park, Singapore
Photos and videos
{{Taxonbar, from=Q862825
white-breasted waterhen
Birds of East Asia
Birds of South Asia
Birds of Southeast Asia
white-breasted waterhen
Articles containing video clips
Taxa named by Thomas Pennant