Gallirallus philippensis
Silhouette: T. Michael Keesey (vectorization) and HuttyMcphoo (photography) · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
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...
Recording0:26
Australia · 2025
© jennyzvo · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:24
Australia · 2026
© verimaz · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:45
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 | Great Otway National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 6 | Wilsons Promontory National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 7 | Daintree National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 8 | Royal National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 9 | Blue Mountains National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 10 | Phillip Island Nature 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 |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Buff-banded Rail sighting in Phillip Island Nature Park on a given day, based on 14 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 138th most-seen of the 149 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Buff-banded Rail in Phillip Island Nature Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
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.
10th of 12
Of the 12 parks where we can rate Buff-banded Rail sightings, Phillip Island Nature Park ranks 10th at under 5%. The best odds are in Rottnest Island (Australia, about 20%), Tangkoko Nature Reserve (Indonesia, about 20%) and Abel Tasman National Park (New Zealand, about 10%).
Same family: Rallidae
The closest relatives of the Buff-banded Rail that you can see in Phillip Island Nature Park (family Rallidae, Rails, Gallinules, and Coots) are South-west Pacific Swamphen (about 60%), Eurasian Coot (about 20%) and Dusky Moorhen (about 10%), 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 Phillip Island Nature Park (14 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.
