Red-chested Flufftail (Sarothrura rufa)

Family
Rallidae (Rails, Gallinules, Coots)

Size
17 cm

First Described (Guide)
(Vieillot, 1819)

Habitat
Marshland vegetation types, requiring dense vegetation where the overall canopy cover is more than 65 % and areas of mud, firm ground or short vegetation.

Range (Guide)

Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Ethiopia, Gabon, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania [United Republic of], Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).

Status LC
For more information see BirdLife International Species Factsheet.

Food
Predominantly invertebrates such as earthworms, small gastropods, spiders, adult and larval insects and crustaceans. In the non-breeding season possibly also grass seeds.

Voice
Xeno-Canto Sound Files (more (30)...)

Red-chested Flufftail (Sarothrura rufa) [XC520141]
by isaac kilusu from City of Matlosana, Southern DC, North West, South Africa (call)

Red-chested Flufftail (Sarothrura rufa) [XC646999]
by Dries Van de Loock from Mandegee farm, oloitoktok, Kenya (call)

Nest
A cup of vegetation, well hidden in a clump of damp or shallowly flooded grass or herbaceous vegetation 8 - 30 cm above the ground or the surface of water at the edge of marshy areas.

Subspecies
Genus sometimes merged into Coturnicops. Subspecies ansorgei proposed for birds of Angola.

The following 3 subspecies are recognised:

bonapartii (Bonaparte, 1856) - Scattered records from Sierra Leone east to Nigeria; more continuously in Cameroon, Gabon and Congo.
elizabethae van Someren, 1919 - Ethiopia; Central African Republic and north-eastern Zaire east to Uganda and western Kenya.
rufa (Vieillot, 1819) - Central Kenya through Tanzania, southern Zaire and Angola to South Africa.

References
See References.

Files:

JPG files for Red-chested Flufftail (Sarothrura rufa) - 10 files

More Information

BirdLife International

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BirdLife International Species Factsheet.

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