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Species
Porzana tabuensis Gmelin, JF, 1789
Media
SUMMARY
Head and underparts leaden grey with a bluish sheen, upperparts dark brown, undertail black barred with white, bill black, eye and eye–ring red, legs reddish in colour. Spotless crake are more often heard than seen and have a wide variety of calls which are usually heard at dawn and dusk. There are sharp ‘pit–pit’ calls, a single or repeated ‘book’ and a distinctive rolling ‘purr’ call like an alarm clock going off and gradually running down. Plumbea is the subspecies of Australia and New Zealand and the nominate tabuensis the subspecies of the Philippines, Moluccas, New Guinea, Micronesia, Melanesnia and south western Polynesia.