Pardirallus is a genus of bird in the family Rallidae. It contains three species native to marshland areas of Southern, Central America and the Caribbean, although fossil evidence indicates they once ranged north to what is now Idaho.[2] They are 25–38 cm long and have a long greenish bill and reddish legs. The spotted rail is blackish-brown with white markings while the other two are brown above and dark grey below.[2]

Pardirallus
Temporal range: 2.588–0 Ma
Late Pliocene to present
Plumbeous rail (Pardirallus sanguinolentus)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Gruiformes
Family: Rallidae
Genus: Pardirallus
Bonaparte, 1856
Type species
Rallus variegatus[1]
Gmelin, 1789
Species

P. maculatus
P. nigricans
P. sanguinolentus

The genus Pardirallus was erected by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1856 with the spotted rail (Pardirallus maculatus) as the type species.[3][4] The generic name combines the Ancient Greek pardos meaning "leopard" with the genus Rallus.[5]

Species

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The genus contains three species :[6]


Genus Pardirallus Bonaparte, 1856 – two species
Common name Scientific name and subspecies Range Size and ecology IUCN status and estimated population
Spotted rail

 

Pardirallus maculatus
(Boddaert, 1783)

Two subspecies
  • P. m. insolitus (Bangs & Peck, 1908)
  • P. m. maculatus (Boddaert, 1783)
Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guyana, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela, and possibly Honduras.
 
Size:

Habitat:

Diet:
 LC 


Blackish rail

 

Pardirallus nigricans
(Swainson, 1838)

Two subspecies
  • P. n. nigricans
  • P. n. caucae
north-eastern Brazil south to south-east Brazil and west to northern Argentina and eastern Paraguay
 
Size:

Habitat:

Diet:
 LC 


Plumbeous rail

 

Pardirallus sanguinolentus
(Loddiges, 1832)

Six subspecies
  • P. s. simonsi Chubb, C., 1918
  • P. s. tschudii Chubb, C., 1919
  • P. s. zelebori (Pelzeln, 1865)
  • P. s. sanguinolentus (Swainson, 1838)
  • P. s. landbecki (Hellmayr, 1932)
  • P. s. luridus (Peale, 1849)
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, and is a vagrant to the Falkland Islands.
 
Size:

Habitat:

Diet:
 LC 



A fossil species, Pardirallus lacustris, is known from the Late Pliocene of the Hagerman Fossil Beds of Idaho. It was formerly assigned to the genus Porzana upon its description in 1958 by Pierce Brodkorb and later to the genus Rallus in 1968 by Alan Feduccia, but an analysis by Storrs L. Olson in 1977 transferred it to Pardirallus.[7]

References

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  1. ^ "Rallidae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  2. ^ a b Taylor, Barry & Ber van Perlo (1998). Rails: A Guide to the Rails, Crakes, Gallinules and Coots of the World. Sussex: Pica Press.
  3. ^ Bonaparte, Charles Lucien (1856). "Excusion dans les divers Musées d'Allemagne, de Hollande et de Belgique (suite)". Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences (in French). 43: 593–601 [599].
  4. ^ Peters, James Lee, ed. (1934). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 169.
  5. ^ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 292. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  6. ^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Flufftails, finfoots, rails, trumpeters, cranes, limpkin". World Bird List Version 9.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  7. ^ Olson, Storrs L. (1977). "A synopsis of the fossil Rallidae". Rails of the World: A Monograph of the Family Rallidae. Boston, MA, USA: David R. Godine. pp. 339–373. hdl:10088/12826.
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