Amaurornis olivacea
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The pale-vented bush-hen or rufous-tailed bush-hen (Amaurornis moluccana) is a medium sized waterbird, mainly blue-grey with a buff vent and undertail. It is found in Australia, the Moluccan Islands, New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.
The pale-vented bush-hen is a member of the family Rallidae which includes crakes and rails. The genus name Amaurornis (Reichenbach 1853) is from the Greek for dark, shadowy or dim, amauros, and bird, ornis. The species name Amaurornis moluccana (Wallace, 1865) means "Moluccan dark and shadowy bird" and relates its original discovery in the Moluccan Islands, Indonesia. The term pale-vented came into use in the late 1990s as a descriptive term, when the species of bush hens in Australia and New Guinea were separated from the Plain Bush-hen (A. olivaceus) endemic to the Philippines.
It is widely known in Australia as simply "bush-hen" but has also been known as rufous-tailed or rufous-vented rail, crake or moorhen or brown rail. Gould believed he had found a new species, Gallinula ruficrissa in 1869 giving it the common name of... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Daintree National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 2 | Noosa National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 3 | Raja Ampat | 🇮🇩 Indonesia |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Davao City | 🇵🇭 Philippines | |
| 2 | Brisbane | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 3 | Manila | 🇵🇭 Philippines |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Rufous-tailed Bush-hen sighting in Daintree National Park on a given day, based on 55 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 109th most-seen of the 208 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November and December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Rufous-tailed Bush-hen in Daintree National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January to October, the lowest months.
Between 5 and 8 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Rufous-tailed Bush-hen sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 3 parks where we can rate Rufous-tailed Bush-hen sightings, Daintree National Park has the highest daily chance: under 5%. Next come Noosa National Park (Australia, under 5%) and Raja Ampat (Indonesia, under 5%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Rufous-tailed Bush-hen is recorded against all the birds logged in Daintree National Park (55 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
