Paint-billed Crake

How to find it

Wet rice fields are worth checking almost anywhere in Costa Rica, especially around Ciudad Neily. The crake can also turn up in dense growth along ditches and other odd wet spots. Near Ciudad Neily, birders watched a vegetated ditch beside a rice field in the early morning, and a crake answered a played call before showing briefly at the edge of the rice and ducking back in. Dawn and dusk are when it comes to puddles and open patches beside dense plants. One birder thinks the local population is probably very small, so patience matters and a local guide who knows the fields helps. Expect only a brief glimpse.

How to recognise it

This is a small crake, about 18 to 20 cm long and weighing roughly 40 to 70 g. The field marks are easy to hold in mind:

Gray face and chest.

Strong black and white bars on the belly and undertail, with barred flanks.

Brown back.

Bright red legs.

Red and yellow bill.

The red on the bill gives the bird its name. Birders watching tractors work an old marshy rice field had a crake fly past close enough for the red to show. In a distant, hard-won photo taken at the edge of rice fields near Ciudad Neily, the gray neck and reddish bill base were still visible. Most views are brief, so these marks are worth learning before you go.

Behaviour and diet

In Costa Rica the Paint-billed Crake is very furtive, and hard to see or to make fly. It feeds in puddles or open spots beside dense plants, at dawn or dusk.

Birders watching tractors work an old marshy rice field saw at least six crakes flush from the grass, and they dropped back into cover quickly. A Colombian paper calls the species skulking, secretive and nervous, and notes that it rarely calls or steps into the open.

It eats insects, though little else is known about what it eats or how it feeds.

Where it lives

Across its range the species uses many habitats, from reedbeds and marshes to wet or dry pastures, rice fields and fairly dry bushy areas. Its elevation range runs from near sea level to almost 3,400 m.

A Costa Rican account describes grassy marshes, flooded meadows, rice fields and drainage canals. One regional description places it in damp grassland, thickets, freshwater marshes, ditches and semi-dry grassy fields, starting in northwestern Costa Rica. In South America it favors swamps and savannas with much grass and thickets.

When to see it

The one definite Costa Rican sighting was in August, and a possible one near Hitoy Cerere was in March. No seasonal pattern is known for the species.

Similar birds

The Colombian Crake is similar. A sighting near Hitoy Cerere in March 1985 was credited either to this crake or to the Colombian Crake, so the two are easy to confuse. A good look at the bill, the gray breast and the barred flanks matters.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Polluela Piquirroja is the name used in Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia. Elsewhere other Spanish names are used, such as polluela picopinta in Spain, gallineta de pico rojo in Peru and burrito pico rojo in Argentina and Paraguay.

Status and conservation

The official list of Costa Rican birds marks it as a resident (R), and the IUCN rates the species Least Concern.

Photography tips

Photos are hard won. The best chances come from the edge of rice fields near Ciudad Neily, early in the morning, when a crake may show briefly at the edge of the rice before ducking back in.