Mayr's Forest Rail Rallicula mayri Scientific name definitions

20–23cm; male 123–136 (mean 128) g, 3 females measured 112–123 (mean 118) g. The only Rallina species of montane forest within its range. Predominantly reddish chestnut plumage of male similar to that of brighter male Chestnut Forest Rail (Rallicula rubra), which lacks bars on tail. Female has dark chestnut brown back and upperwing with large black-margined buff spots; similar to female Forbes's Forest Rail (Rallicula forbesi) and White-striped Forest Rail (Rallicula leucospila), both also having indistinct blackish bars on belly and thighs, but present species considerably duller; female Chestnut Forest Rail lacks well defined bars on underparts and tail, and has spotted upper mantle. Immature and juvenile undescribed. Subspecies separated on overall color, carmichaeli darker brown.

Editor's Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.

Closely related to White-striped Forest Rail and Forbes's Forest Rail. Two subspecies are recognized.

Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Floor of montane forest, at 1,100–2,200 m.

Not globally threatened (Least Concern). Mayr's Forest Rail is a restricted-range species: present in North Papuan Mountains EBA, and found on four isolated coastal mountain ranges. It is known only from a handful of specimens and a series of sightings over the past several decades. It was apparently common in secure habitat in 1960s (1 Diamond, J. M. (1969). Preliminary results of an ornithological exploration of the North Coastal Range, New Guinea. American Museum Novitates 2362:1–57. Close ), but not found on a visit to Cyclops Mts in 1992 BirdLife International (2015) Species factsheet: Rallicula mayri. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 26/05/2016.. The species was recorded on all of five expeditions in Foja Mts, where it was rare to fairly common or common (2 Beehler, B.M. and Prawiradilaga, D.M. (2010). New taxa and new records of birds from the north coastal ranges of New Guinea. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 130(4): 277–285. Close , 3 Beehler, B. M., J. M. Diamond, N. Kemp, E. Scholes, C. Milensky, and T. G. Laman (2012). Avifauna of the Foja Mountains of western New Guinea. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 132(2):84–101. Close ). Although localized with a highly specific habitat, its true distribution may be larger than presently known. There is no information on population size or trends, but the species inhabits isolated mountains which are rarely visited, suggesting that threats are minimal and the population is likely stable.