Critically Endangered
New Caledonian Rail
Gallirallus lafresnayanus
The New Caledonian rail is a large and drab flightless rail endemic to the island of New Caledonia in the Pacific.
Appearance
It is a large rail, about 45 cm long, dull brown above, with grey underparts, and has a yellowish, downward-curving bill. The feathers are fluffy and silky, rendering the bird unable to fly. Its wings are also reduced (but not as much as in other flightless rails).
The New Caledonian rail is a large and drab flightless rail endemic to the island of New Caledonia in the Pacific.
Range and habitat
New Caledonian Rail is recorded from New Caledonia.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
In crisis
It is Critically Endangered, may have gone extinct many decades ago already, and if it still exists it is one of the least-known living bird species.
New Caledonian Rail is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on New Caledonian Rail, Wikidata item Q1066511. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
