Ocellated Crake (Micropygia schomburgkii)

Identification & Behavior: ~14.5 cm (5.7 in). The Ocellated Crake has olive-brown upperparts with distinctive white drop-shaped spots bordered by a black rim. The underparts and forehead are reddish brown. The legs are red. It favors open grassland and mixed grass/shrub habitats where it is difficult to see. The coloring pattern of the upperparts are unmistakable, but see Russet-crowned Crake.

Status: The Ocellated Crake is known in Peru only from the grass/shrubb tropical savannah of Pampas del Heath in extreme southeast Peru where it is rare. It also occurs in Co, Br, and Bo.

Name in Spanish: Gallineta de Ocelos.

Sub-species: Ocellated Crake, Micropygia schomburgkii chapmani, Naumburg, 1930.

Meaning of Name: Micropygia: L. mikros= small and pugios= rump. schomburgkii= after the British explorer of German origin, Sir Robert Hermann Schomburgk.

See more of the Family Rallidae