Yellow-breasted crake

The yellow-breasted crake was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1781 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux.[4] The bird was also illustrated in a hand-colored plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text.[5] Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Rallus flaviventer in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées.[6] The yellow-breasted crake was next placed in the genus Porzana that was erected by the French ornithologist Louis-Pierre Vieillot in 1816.[7][2] That generic name is the Venetian word for the small crakes. The specific epithet combines the Latin flavus meaning "yellow" with venter meaning "belly".[8]

However, the yellow-breasted crake's taxonomy has not been resolved. It was formerly sometimes placed in the obsolete genus Poliolimnas or united with the Ocellated crake in Micropygia. Phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial DNA revealed that it is not a part of Porzana proper, and instead belongs within the Coturnicops–Laterallus clade.[9][10]

As of late 2022 the International Ornithological Committee and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World place the yellow-breasted crake in genus Laterallus. The North American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society (AOS) and the Clements taxonomy place it in the monotypic genus Hapalocrex. The South American Classification Committee of AOS retains it in genus Porzana after rejecting Laterallus but is seeking a proposal to move it to Hapalocrex.[2][3][11][12][13]

The worldwide taxonomic systems agree that the yellow-breasted crake has these five subspecies:[2][3][12]

• L. f. gossii (Bonaparte, 1856)
• L. f. hendersoni Bartsch, 1917
• L. f. woodi van Rossem, 1934
• L. f. bangsi Darlington, 1931
• L. f. flaviventer (Boddaert, 1783)

The yellow-breasted crake is 12.5 to 14 cm (4.9 to 5.5 in) long. Males weigh 22 to 29 g (0.78 to 1.0 oz) and females 20 to 28 g (0.71 to 0.99 oz). The sexes are alike. Their generally buffy face has a dark line through the eye and a pale buff-white supercilium, a pattern unique among New World members of Rallidae. Adults of the nominate subspecies L. f. flaviventer have brown upperparts and a white throat, buffy yellow breast, and black and white banded flanks and belly. The other subspecies differ from the nominate in size and the intensity of their colors. The nominate and L. f. gossii are the largest, and the nominate has the darkest neck and breast. L. f. bangsi's upperparts are the darkest and L. f. hendersoni's are the palest.[14]

The five subspecies of yellow-breasted crake are found thus:[2][14]

• L. f. gossii, Cuba and Jamaica
• L. f. hendersoni, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico
• L. f. woodi, from central Mexico south to northwestern Costa Rica
• L. f. bangsi, northern Colombia
• L. f. flaviventer, Panama east through northern and central Colombia and Venezuela to the Guianas and south through parts of Brazil, eastern Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay into northeastern Argentina; also Trinidad and Tobago[15]

Undocumented sight records in Ecuador lead the South American Classification Committee (SACC) of the AOS to call the species hypothetical in that country. The SACC also notes it as a vagrant rather than inhabitant in Uruguay.[15]

The yellow-breasted crake is primarily a bird of freshwater systems, but is also rarely found at saltwater. It inhabits marshes, grassy edges of ponds and lakes, rice fields, and flooded grassy fields. In elevation it ranges from sea level to 2,500 m (8,200 ft).[14]

The IUCN has assessed the yellow-breasted crake as being of Least Concern. Its estimated population of 7000 mature individuals has an unknown trend. No immediate threats have been identified.[1] It is considered locally common in much of its range and is "undoubtedly more widespread than is known."[14]