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Bashful beauty seeks privacy in Perth's beds

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Some of Perth's most beautiful birds can also be the hardest to get a good look at.

One of these is the elusive and fleet-footed buff-banded rail, which dashes for the cover of the nearest reed bed whenever it spots an intruder and is often mistaken for less shy birds such as coots and moorhens.

So although it is relatively common in wetlands in all but the driest regions of Australia, many people never see, or only catch glimpses of, this striking yet well camouflaged bird.

Known to the Noongar as nyanin, the buff-banded rail can easily be identified by its chicken-like gate and the way in which it constantly flicks its tail.

Common across Australia, it is represented by subspecies from Cape York (where it is smaller than usual) to WA (where its colours are darker), as well as on offshore islands.

The Macquarie Island subspecies has been rendered extinct by introduced predators and habitat destruction, and subspecies on some other islands are threatened in the same way, but the species itself is seen to be safe, so its official conservation status is "of least concern".


Buff-banded rails are certainly common in Perth's wetlands, where they scavenge among dense reeds and swamp vegetation for a wide variety of foods from lizards and insects to seeds and dead animals. They have also learnt to eat human food scraps, when they're available.

They breed from September to February, when a cup-shaped nest is constructed in dense waterside undergrowth in which the hen lays three to eight white eggs sprinkled with rust-coloured blotches.

Both parents incubate the eggs, and when they hatch, the black, fluffy chicks leave the nest within 24 hours to scavenge under their parents' supervision.

In accordance with their secretive nature, buff-banded rails are normally not very vocal, however when a parent bird spots danger it gives a loud squeaking alarm call and the chicks run to shelter beneath it.



Reptiles were laying eggs thousands of years before chickens appeared, and the first chicken came from an egg laid by a bird that was not quite a chicken.  Therefore, say the boffins, the egg came first.

The photographs in this article were generously provided by members of the Western Australian Birds Facebook site.



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