Gallirallus philippensis
Silhouette: T. Michael Keesey (vectorization) and HuttyMcphoo (photography) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The buff-banded rail (Gallirallus philippensis) is a distinctively coloured, highly dispersive, medium-sized rail of the rail family, Rallidae. This species comprises several subspecies found throughout much of Australasia and the south-west Pacific region, including the Philippines (where it is known as tikling), New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand (where it is known as the banded rail, or moho-pererū in Māori), and numerous smaller islands, covering a range of latitudes from the tropics to the subantarctic. The species was formerly placed in the genus Hypotaenidia.
In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson described and illustrated the buff-banded rail in his multi-volume Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in the Philippines. He used the French name Le rasle rayé des Philippines and the Latin name Rallus Philippensis Striatus. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson... Wikipedia →
Recording0:26
Australia · 2025
© jennyzvo · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:24
Australia · 2026
© verimaz · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
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Australia · 2023
© Colin Trainor · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rottnest Island | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 2 | Tangkoko Nature Reserve | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 3 | Abel Tasman National Park | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | |
| 4 | Cape Range | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 5 | Ningaloo Marine Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 6 | Great Otway National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 7 | Wilsons Promontory National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 8 | Daintree National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 9 | Royal National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 10 | Blue Mountains National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 11 | Lamington National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 12 | Kinabalu Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Territory Wildlife Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 2 | Zoo Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Parc zoologique et forestier Michel-Corbasson | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 4 | Cleland Wildlife Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 5 | Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 6 | Melbourne Zoo | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 7 | Auckland Zoo | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | |
| 8 | Adelaide Zoo | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 9 | Australian Reptile Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 10 | Featherdale Sydney Wildlife Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 11 | Cairns Aquarium | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 12 | Birdworld Kuranda | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 13 | Kuranda Koala Gardens | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 14 | Caversham Wildlife Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 15 | Wildlife Habitat Port Douglas | 🇦🇺 Australia |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Buff-banded Rail sighting in Melbourne on a given day, based on 2,159 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 74th most-seen of the 236 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February–March and June–December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Buff-banded Rail in Melbourne on a given day, against under 5% in January and April–May, the lowest months.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Buff-banded Rail sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 7 cities where we can rate Buff-banded Rail sightings, Melbourne ranks 4th at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Makassar (Indonesia, about 10%), Brisbane (Australia, about 10%) and Perth (Australia, about 10%).
Same family: Rallidae
The closest relatives of the Buff-banded Rail that you can see in Melbourne (family Rallidae, Rails, Gallinules, and Coots) are Dusky Moorhen (about 60%), Eurasian Coot (about 60%) and South-west Pacific Swamphen (about 50%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Buff-banded Rail is recorded against all the birds logged in Melbourne (2,159 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
