Banded Rail
Banded Rail (moho-pererū) - Gallirallus philippensis
The Banded Rail at Rainbow Springs arrived from Otorohanga Native Bird Park and there are 7 in our free-flight avairy. These fast little rails do a fantastic road-runner impression and look extremely comical when flying as they don't tuck their long gangley legs up, instead letting them dangle down.
Banded rails were once common all over the mainland, but predators and habitat loss have taken their toll. Now a protected species, they are only found on Stewart Island, the Nelson–Golden Bay area, and the northern North Island and nearby islands.
Not a great deal is known about these birds as they are quite reclusive. Banded rails like to live in wetland areas that surround freshwater and coastal waterways. They enjoy quite a varied diet of land snails and coastal molluscs, crabs, spiders, insects and worms. They also eat berries and seeds, and sometimes scavenge in rubbish tips. These shy little birds are easiest to spot at dusk or dawn at waterways when feeding after the high tide.
Great Barrier Island boasts perhaps the largest New Zealand population of Banded Rail – some relatively tame.
Did you know?
About the size of a small domestic chicken, banded rail are mainly brown with finely banded black and white underparts and white ‘eyebrows’. A slimmer version of the weka, banded rail can fly and are great swimmers, despite not having webbed feet. Their long toes give the bird support over a large area acting like snow shoes, and like all rails, their tail flicks continually. The banded rail’s call resembles human laughter.