White-throated crake
The white-throated crake is a species of bird in subfamily Rallinae of family Rallidae, the rails, gallinules, and coots. It is found in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and Venezuela.
Taxonomy and systematics
The white-throated crake was for a time treated as a subspecies of the rufous-sided crake. As a species in its own right, it has three subspecies, the nominate L. a. albigularis, L. a. cinereiceps, and L. a. cerdaleus.Description
The white-throated crake is long. Males weigh about and females. The sexes are alike. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a white throat and upper breast and a rufous face, sides of the neck, and lower breast. Their crown, nape, and upperparts are olive brown. Their belly, vent, and undertail coverts are barred black and white. Subspecies L. a. cinereiceps has a gray face and L. a. cerdaleus has an entirely rufous head and throat.Distribution and habitat
The nominate subspecies of white-throated crake is found along the Pacific side of southwestern Costa Rica and Panama and through northern and western Colombia into western Ecuador as far south as El Oro Province. L. a. cerdaleus is found in northern Colombia and extreme northwestern Venezuela. L. a. cinereiceps is found from southeastern Honduras along the Caribbean slope of Nicaragua and Costa Rica and into Panama as far as Veraguas Province. The nominate subspecies has also occurred in Peru as a vagrant.The white-throated crake inhabits a variety of both wet and dry landscapes including marshes, wet grassy fields and pastures, thickets, forest clearings, and the edges of watercourses and ponds. In elevation it ranges from sea level to.