Ruddy Crake

Polluela Canela

Laterallus ruber

Where and when to see the Ruddy Crake

Draft

Mostly in Quintana Roo

It lives in freshwater wetlands with tall grass. You will almost always hear it before you see it: wait quietly at the edge of the grass.

2–45–1920–99100+reports per ~10 km square

All year · most reports Jun–Sep

Reports relative to effort

Data: eBird and other datasets via GBIF.org (CC BY 4.0), 2015–2026 · Base map: Natural Earth

Identification: A sparrow-sized rail, bright chestnut almost all over, with a blackish crown, dark grey face, red eye, short black bill and olive-green legs.
Voice: An explosive, descending trill from deep in the grass, unlike any other marsh bird’s and often the only sign it is there.

Draft

Chestnut all over
No other small rail in its range is almost entirely chestnut, so one clear look is enough to name it. ¹
Any ditch will do
It doesn’t need a big marsh. It also lives in flooded fields, wet pastures with tall weeds and roadside ditches, from sea level up to 1,500 m. ¹
Once the commonest
In the 1960s and 1970s it was considered the most abundant crake in its Mexican range. In Costa Rica, at the southern end of its range, it is rare. ²

Birds of the World (Cornell Lab): Ruddy Crake (opens in a new tab)
Wikipedia: Ruddy crake (opens in a new tab)
IUCN Red List category, via GBIF: Laterallus ruber (opens in a new tab)
Map and months: 4,103 records from 2015–2026 from eBird, iNaturalist, and others, via GBIF.org (CC BY 4.0), in 0.1° squares (about 10 km). eBird: doi.org/10.15468/aomfnb.
Months: the species’ records ÷ all bird records that month, scaled to the busiest month. It allows for birding effort; it is not the chance of seeing it. A blank square: few or no reports, not necessarily absent.

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