Brown-cheeked Rail

How to identify

Field marks

1. Rufous eyestripe with grayish-white above, resembling a supercilium
2. Rufous-tinged breast and neck
3. White patches on the flanks and black-and-white stripes on the undertail
4. Long bill, neck, and legs and feet

Male, female and young

Differences between the sexes in size and shape and plumage color are slight (smaller than in Water Rail).

Voice

The courtship call is a sharp, flute-like “kyu”, given throughout the year; the song is a metallic “shrink, shrink”, at about two notes per second.

Similar species

Water Rail

Brown-cheeked Rail has a rufous-tinged face and black-and-white stripes on the undertail-coverts, giving a “dirtier” appearance; Water Rail has a clean gray face and white undertail-coverts.

Where and when it's recorded

Brown-cheeked Rail has been recorded at 333 of the 8,171 birding hotspots we track, in 12 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. Muravyevka ParkRussia399 records
2. Long ValleyHong Kong (China)203 records
3. Taipei – Tianliaoyang WetlandTaiwan (China)154 records

Countries and regions with the most records

ChinaJapanRussiaIndiaMongoliaThailandSouth KoreaBangladesh

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

Questions