Porzana
Encyclopedia
Porzana is a genus of birds in the crake or rail family, Rallidae
Rallidae
The rails, or Rallidae, are a large cosmopolitan family of small to medium-sized birds. The family exhibits considerable diversity and the family also includes the crakes, coots, and gallinules...

. It has a global distribution, contains 13 living species, and 4-5 recently extinct
Holocene extinction event
The Holocene extinction refers to the extinction of species during the present Holocene epoch . The large number of extinctions span numerous families of plants and animals including mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and arthropods; a sizeable fraction of these extinctions are occurring in the...

 ones. In addition, a large number of prehistorically extinct species known only from fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

 or subfossil
Subfossil
Subfossil refers to remains whose fossilization process is not complete, either for lack of time or because the conditions in which they were buried were not optimal for fossilization....

 remains have been discovered.

Living species
  • Porzana parva Scopoli
    Giovanni Antonio Scopoli
    Giovanni Antonio Scopoli was an Italian physician and naturalist.-Biography:...

    , 1769
    - Little Crake
    Little Crake
    The Little Crake is a very small waterbird of the family Rallidae.Their breeding habitat is reed beds in Europe, mainly in the east, and just into western Asia. They nest in a dry location in reed vegetation, laying 4-7 eggs...

     (breeds in Eurasia
    Eurasia
    Eurasia is a continent or supercontinent comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia ; covering about 52,990,000 km2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres...

    , winters in Africa
    Africa
    Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

    )
  • Porzana pusilla Pallas
    Peter Simon Pallas
    Peter Simon Pallas was a German zoologist and botanist who worked in Russia.- Life and work :Pallas was born in Berlin, the son of Professor of Surgery Simon Pallas. He studied with private tutors and took an interest in natural history, later attending the University of Halle and the University...

    , 1776
    - Baillon's Crake
    Baillon's Crake
    The Baillon's Crake is a very small waterbird of the family Rallidae.-Distribution:Their breeding habitat is sedge beds in Europe, mainly in the east, and across Asia. They used to breed in Great Britain up to the mid-19th century, but the western European population declined through drainage....

     (breeds in Eurasia, winters in east Africa
    East Africa
    East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...

     and South Asia
    South Asia
    South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...

    )
  • Porzana porzana Linnaeus
    Carolus Linnaeus
    Carl Linnaeus , also known after his ennoblement as , was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology...

    , 1766
    - Spotted Crake
    Spotted Crake
    The Spotted Crake is a small waterbird, of the family Rallidae.Their breeding habitat is marshes and sedge beds across temperate Europe into western Asia. They nest in a dry location in marsh vegetation, laying 6-15 eggs...

     (breeds in Eurasia, winters in Africa and India
    India
    India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

    )
  • Porzana fluminea Gould
    John Gould
    John Gould was an English ornithologist and bird artist. The Gould League in Australia was named after him. His identification of the birds now nicknamed "Darwin's finches" played a role in the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection...

    , 1843
    - Australian Spotted Crake
    Australian Spotted Crake
    The Australian Spotted Crake is a species of bird in the Rallidae family. It is endemic to Australia, where its natural habitat is dense reedbeds, shallow open water and mudflats or floating vegetation in fresh or salt water wetlands including lakes, swamps and salt-marsh. Can also be found far...

  • Porzana carolina Linnaeus
    Carolus Linnaeus
    Carl Linnaeus , also known after his ennoblement as , was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology...

    , 1758
    - Sora
    Sora (crake)
    The Sora is a small waterbird of the family Rallidae, sometimes also referred to as the Sora Rail or Sora Crake.Adults Soras are long, with dark-marked brown upperparts, a blue-grey face and underparts, and black and white barring on the flanks. They have a short thick yellow bill, with black...

     (North America
    North America
    North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

    )
  • Porzana spiloptera Durnford, 1877 - Dot-winged Crake
    Dot-winged Crake
    The Dot-winged Crake is a species of bird in the Rallidae family.It is found in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay....

     (Argentina
    Argentina
    Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

    , Brazil
    Brazil
    Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

    , Uruguay
    Uruguay
    Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

    )
  • Porzana albicollis Vieillot
    Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot
    Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot was a French ornithologist.Vieillot described a large number of birds for the first time, especially those he encountered during the time he spent in the West Indies and North America, and 26 genera established by him are still in use...

    , 1819
    - Ash-throated Crake
    Ash-throated Crake
    The Ash-throated Crake is a species of bird in the Rallidae family.It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela....

     (South America
    South America
    South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

    )
  • Porzana fusca Linnaeus
    Carolus Linnaeus
    Carl Linnaeus , also known after his ennoblement as , was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology...

    , 1766
    - Ruddy-breasted Crake
    Ruddy-breasted Crake
    The Ruddy-breasted Crake , or Ruddy Crake, is a waterbird in the rail and crake family Rallidae.Its breeding habitat is swamps and similar wet areas across south Asia from the Indian subcontinent east to south China, Japan and Indonesia. It has been recorded as a vagrant from the Australian...

     (Asia
    Asia
    Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

    )
  • Porzana paykullii Ljungh, 1813 - Band-bellied Crake
    Band-bellied Crake
    The Band-bellied Crake is a species of bird in the Rallidae family.It is found in China, Indonesia, North Korea, South Korea, Malaysia, Russia, Thailand, and Vietnam.It is threatened by habitat loss.-References:...

     (East Asia
    East Asia
    East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...

    )
  • Porzana tabuensis Gmelin
    Johann Friedrich Gmelin
    Johann Friedrich Gmelin was a German naturalist, botanist, entomologist, herpetologist and malacologist.- Education :Johann Friedrich Gmelin was born as the eldest son of Philipp Friedrich Gmelin in 1748 in Tübingen...

    , 1789
    - Spotless Crake
    Spotless Crake
    The Spotless Crake is a species of bird in the rail family, Rallidae.It is found in American Samoa, Australia, the Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Indonesia, Micronesia, New Zealand, Niue, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Pitcairn, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Tonga.-References:* BirdLife...

     (Oceania
    Oceania
    Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...

    )
  • Porzana atra North
    Alfred John North
    Alfred John North was an Australian ornithologist.North was born in Melbourne and was educated at Melbourne Grammar School...

    , 1980
    - Red-eyed Crake (Henderson Island
    Henderson Island (Pitcairn Islands)
    Henderson Island is an uninhabited raised coral atoll in the south Pacific Ocean, that in 1902 was annexed to the Pitcairn Islands colony, a South Pacific Dependent Territory of the United Kingdom. Measuring long and wide, it has an area of and is located northeast of Pitcairn Island at . The...

    )
  • Porzana flaviventer Boddaert
    Pieter Boddaert
    Pieter Boddaert was a Dutch physician and naturalist.Boddaert was the son of a Middelburg jurist and poet by the same name . Pieter Jr. obtained his M.D. at the University of Utrecht in 1764 and there became a lecturer on natural history. Fourteen letters survive of his correspondence with Carl...

    , 1783
    - Yellow-breasted Crake
    Yellow-breasted Crake
    The Yellow-breasted Crake is a species of bird in the Rallidae family.It is found in Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Cayman Islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto...

     (Central
    Central America
    Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...

     and South America, Caribbean
    Caribbean
    The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

    )
  • Porzana cinerea Vieillot
    Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot
    Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot was a French ornithologist.Vieillot described a large number of birds for the first time, especially those he encountered during the time he spent in the West Indies and North America, and 26 genera established by him are still in use...

    , 1819
    - White-browed Crake
    White-browed Crake
    The White-browed Crake is a species of bird in the Rallidae family. It is found in Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, Fiji, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Micronesia, New Caledonia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Thailand, and Vanuatu.Its natural...

     (East Asia, Oceania)


Extinct species
  • Porzana palmeri Frohawk
    Frederick William Frohawk
    Frederick William Frohawk was an English zoological artist and lepidopterist.Frohawk was the author of Natural History of British Butterflies , The Complete Book of British Butterflies and Varieties of British Butterflies .Frohawk was born at Brisley Hall, East Dereham, Norfolk, the son of a...

    , 1892
    - Laysan Rail
    Laysan Rail
    The Laysan Rail or Laysan Crake was a tiny inhabitant of the Northwest Hawaiian Island of Laysan. This small island was and still is an important seabird colony, and sustained a number of endemic species, including the rail. It became extinct due to habitat loss by domestic rabbits, and ultimately...

    , (1944)
  • Porzana sandwichensis Gmelin
    Johann Friedrich Gmelin
    Johann Friedrich Gmelin was a German naturalist, botanist, entomologist, herpetologist and malacologist.- Education :Johann Friedrich Gmelin was born as the eldest son of Philipp Friedrich Gmelin in 1748 in Tübingen...

    , 1789
    - Hawaiian Rail
    Hawaiian Rail
    The Hawaiian Rail , Hawaiian Spotted Rail, or Hawaiian Crake was a somewhat enigmatic species of diminutive rail that lived on Big Island of Hawaii, but is now extinct. It was a flightless bird that was apparently found in shrubland and secondary growth on abandoned fields and in times of danger...

    , (c.1890)
  • Porzana monasa - Kosrae Crake, (c. mid-late 19th century)
  • Porzana nigra J. F. Miller
    John Frederick Miller
    John Frederick Miller was an English illustrator, mainly of botanical subjects.Miller was the son of the artist Johann Sebastian Müller . Miller, along with his brother James, produced paintings from the sketches made by Sydney Parkinson on James Cook's first voyage...

    , 1784
    - Miller's Rail
    Miller's Rail
    The Miller's Rail was a species of bird in the Rallidae family.It was endemic to Tahiti. It was discovered and painted by Georg Forster during the second Cook voyage. John Frederick Miller copied Forsters painting and published it with some changes and remarks in his work Cimelia Physica in 1784....

    , (18th century) only known by two paintings
  • Porzana astrictocarpus Olson
    Storrs L. Olson
    Storrs Lovejoy Olson is an American biologist and ornithologist from the Smithsonian Institution. He is one of the world's foremost avian paleontologists....

    , 1973
    - Saint Helena Crake, (early 16th century)
  • Porzana ralphorum Olson, 1973 - Great Oahu Crake
    Great O‘ahu Crake
    The Great Oahu Crake or Great Oahu Rail is an extinct bird species endemic to the island of Oahu in Hawaii. It was one of two flightless rails that had survived on the island until the arrival of people in 200 C.E....

    , (prehistoric
    Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
    Prehistoric birds are various taxa of birds that became extinct before recorded history, or more precisely, before they could be studied alive by bird scientists...

    )
  • Porzana severnsi Olson, 1973 - Great Maui Crake
    Great Maui Crake
    The Great Maui Rail or Great Maui Crake is an extinct bird species from Maui, one of two flightless rails which survived on Maui until people arrived in 150 C.E....

     (prehistoric
    Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
    Prehistoric birds are various taxa of birds that became extinct before recorded history, or more precisely, before they could be studied alive by bird scientists...

    )
  • Porzana rua - Mangaia Crake (prehistoric
    Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
    Prehistoric birds are various taxa of birds that became extinct before recorded history, or more precisely, before they could be studied alive by bird scientists...

    )
  • Porzana menehune - Liliput Crake (prehistoric
    Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
    Prehistoric birds are various taxa of birds that became extinct before recorded history, or more precisely, before they could be studied alive by bird scientists...

    )
  • Porzana ziegleri - Small Oahu Crake (prehistoric
    Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
    Prehistoric birds are various taxa of birds that became extinct before recorded history, or more precisely, before they could be studied alive by bird scientists...

    )
  • Porzana keplerorum - Small Maui Crake (prehistoric
    Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
    Prehistoric birds are various taxa of birds that became extinct before recorded history, or more precisely, before they could be studied alive by bird scientists...

    )
  • Porzana estramosi - (Sajóvölgyi Middle? - Late Miocene of Hungary)
  • Porzana piercei - (Shore Hills Late Pleistocene of Bermuda, W Atlantic)
  • Porzana cf. flaviventer (Bermuda
    Bermuda
    Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...

    , West Atlantic)
  • Easter Island Crake, Porzana sp. (prehistoric
    Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
    Prehistoric birds are various taxa of birds that became extinct before recorded history, or more precisely, before they could be studied alive by bird scientists...

    )
  • Great Big Island Crake, Porzana sp. (prehistoric
    Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
    Prehistoric birds are various taxa of birds that became extinct before recorded history, or more precisely, before they could be studied alive by bird scientists...

    )
  • Great Kauai Crake, Porzana sp. (prehistoric
    Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
    Prehistoric birds are various taxa of birds that became extinct before recorded history, or more precisely, before they could be studied alive by bird scientists...

    )
  • Huahine Crake, Porzana sp. (prehistoric
    Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
    Prehistoric birds are various taxa of birds that became extinct before recorded history, or more precisely, before they could be studied alive by bird scientists...

    )
  • Mangaia Crake#2, Porzana sp. (prehistoric
    Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
    Prehistoric birds are various taxa of birds that became extinct before recorded history, or more precisely, before they could be studied alive by bird scientists...

    )
  • Marquesas Crake, Porzana sp. (prehistoric
    Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
    Prehistoric birds are various taxa of birds that became extinct before recorded history, or more precisely, before they could be studied alive by bird scientists...

    )
  • Marianas Crake, Porzana sp. (prehistoric
    Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
    Prehistoric birds are various taxa of birds that became extinct before recorded history, or more precisely, before they could be studied alive by bird scientists...

    ) - possibly 2 species
  • Medium Kauai Crake, Porzana sp. (prehistoric
    Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
    Prehistoric birds are various taxa of birds that became extinct before recorded history, or more precisely, before they could be studied alive by bird scientists...

    )
  • Medium Maui Crake, Porzana sp. (prehistoric
    Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
    Prehistoric birds are various taxa of birds that became extinct before recorded history, or more precisely, before they could be studied alive by bird scientists...

    )
  • Small Big Island Crake, Porzana sp. (prehistoric
    Late Quaternary prehistoric birds
    Prehistoric birds are various taxa of birds that became extinct before recorded history, or more precisely, before they could be studied alive by bird scientists...

    )


The Middle Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....

 fossil described as Porzana auffenbergi is now placed in Rallus
Rallus
Rallus is a genus of wetland birds of the rail family. Sometimes, the genera Lewinia and Gallirallus are included in it. Six of the species are found in the Americas, and the three species found in Eurasia, Africa and Madagascar are very closely related to each other, suggesting they are descended...

.
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