Eupetes macrocerus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The rail-babbler or Malaysian rail-babbler (Eupetes macrocerus) is a brown and pied rail-like ground-living bird. It is the only species in the genus Eupetes and family Eupetidae. It lives on the floor of primary forests in the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra (the nominate subspecies macrocerus), as well as Borneo (ssp. borneensis). It is distantly related to African rockfowl. Its population has greatly decreased because much of the lowland primary forest has been cut, and secondary forests usually have too dense a bottom vegetation or do not offer enough shade to be favourable for the species. However, it is locally still common in logged forest or on hill-forest on slopes, and probably not in immediate danger of extinction. The species is poorly known and rarely seen, in no small part due to its shyness.
Opinions on the correct taxonomic placement for the rail-babbler have differed. At one time, it was placed in the Old World babbler family, Timaliidae. Until recently, it had been regarded as being related to a group which included the quail-thrushes and whipbirds, and placed in the family Cinclosomatidae (previously in Orthonychidae when the members of the Cinclosomatidae... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Taman Negara National Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia |
More parks will be added in future updates.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Malaysian Rail-babbler sighting in Taman Negara National Park on a given day, based on 96 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 132nd most-seen of the 293 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.
May–October and December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Malaysian Rail-babbler in Taman Negara National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January–April and November, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Malaysian Rail-babbler sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Taman Negara National Park, in our data
Taman Negara National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Malaysian Rail-babbler sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Malaysian Rail-babbler that you can see in Taman Negara National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Greater Racket-tailed Drongo (about 50%), Oriental Magpie-Robin (about 50%) and Red-eyed Bulbul (about 50%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Malaysian Rail-babbler is recorded against all the birds logged in Taman Negara National Park (96 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.
