Gallirallus philippensis
Silhouette: T. Michael Keesey (vectorization) and HuttyMcphoo (photography) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
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
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 | 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 |
No species of the same family or order lives in Rottnest Island, so these are its closest relatives here: other birds.
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Buff-banded Rail sighting in Rottnest Island on a given day, based on 97 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 39th most-seen of the 81 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January to March
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Buff-banded Rail in Rottnest Island on a given day, against under 5% in September, the lowest month. Those are among Rottnest Island's driest months, with about 25 mm of rain a month against 120 mm in June.
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.
Yes
Of the 12 parks where we can rate Buff-banded Rail sightings, Rottnest Island has the highest daily chance: about 20%. Next come Tangkoko Nature Reserve (Indonesia, about 20%) and Abel Tasman National Park (New Zealand, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Buff-banded Rail is recorded against all the birds logged in Rottnest Island (97 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.
