Rare weka relative discovered on Philippine Island

18 August 2004

Contact: Kevin Hackwell, Conservation Manager, 04 385 7374, 021 227 8420

Ornithologists on an expedition to the Calayan Island in the Babuyan Islands in the Philippines have discovered a rare near-flightless rail, related to New Zealand's weka. It is thought that only 2000 of the Calayan rail (Gallirallus calayanensis) exist. New Zealand rails include weka, takahe, Auckland Island rail, spotless crake, banded rail, marsh crake and pukeko, the first three being unique to New Zealand.

"The discovery of a relative of the weka is wonderful news. This is almost as big as the rediscovery of the takahe was in 1948," Forest and Bird's Conservation Manager Kevin Hackwell said.

"A local bylaw banning logging and the absence of introduced pests seems to be the main reasons this bird still survives. The Island's mayor wants the forests of the island protected which is great news for the survival of the bird," he said.

The Calayan rail only occurs in an area less than 100 square kilometres and may even be restricted to an area of less than 10km. It lives in forest that grows on old raised coral beds.

"The Calayan rail is a forest bird like its relative the weka," he said.

"The Calayan rail is almost flightless. This makes it all the more remarkable that it has survived through to the 21st century. Since human settlement, New Zealand has lost too many of its flightless birds to habitat destruction and introduced predators, including three rail species" he said.

"Remarkably, there is still primary forest in the centre of the island, and much of the rest of the island is covered by secondary forest," explained Des Allen, a veteran of many expeditions to the Philippines, who accompanied the expedition as a volunteer consultant on Asian birds.

For further information or interviews please contact:
UK - Genevieve Broad (co-leader of expedition): Tel. +44 (0)1502 724046 (home); +44 (0)788 794 3018 (mobile); genbroad@hotmail.com

UK - Desmond Allen (consultant on oriental birds, & expedition member): Tel. +44 (0)207 2636895; dnsallen@ukonline.co.uk

Philippines - Carl Oliveros (co-leader of expedition): Tel. +63 (0)28729085 (home); +63(0)9175408362 (mobile); carl_oliveros@yahoo.com

Photographs of Calayan rail are available on request from Forest and Bird for media use only or can be downloaded from the BirdLife International website at: http://www.birdlife.net/news/news/2004/08/calayan_rail.html

Babuyan Islands Expedition
The Babuyan Islands Expedition was jointly led by Carl Oliveros and Genevieve Broad, who had both previously worked on humpback whale conservation in the waters around the island. They had the support of the Mayor of Calayan, who wants the island and its surrounding waters to be made a protected area.

The Babuyan Islands are in the northernmost part of the Philippines archipelago, lying in deep water between the much larger islands of Luzon and Taiwan. The bird life of the Babuyans also has affinities with the Japanese Ryukyu Islands, about 1,000 km to the north.

The expedition visited four of the five main islands: Camiguin Norte, Babuyan Claro, Calayan and Dalupiri. Camiguin Norte was extensively logged in the Marcos era, Dalupiri has been converted to a private cattle ranch, and a lot of hunting occurs on Babuyan Claro.

Calayan Island
Calayan has suffered neither excessive logging nor hunting, and a local bylaw forbids timber being shipped off the island. The population is small, and concentrated on the south of the island.

The Discovery of the Calayan Rail
Just before noon on the 11 May 2004, Carmela was walking between clearings, where coconut palms had been planted along the path. Unfamiliar loud, rasping calls drew her attention to a group of four rails in the undergrowth, and shortly afterwards she watched them silently cross the trail and begin foraging by turning over dried leaves with a side-to-side motion of their bills. The birds were dark, with orange-red bill and legs. The two larger individuals appeared to be the same size as Barred Rail, a common species on the island, but all the birds lacked barring.

Carmela took notes and photographs, and recorded the calls with a Walkman-type tape recorder, using a tie-clip microphone. Des Allen later boosted the sounds on his more powerful recording equipment. But Carmela's account had him scratching his head, as he asked her questions relating to species of rails and crakes known from the area. Were they barred underneath? Did they have short bills? "It was a good description, but it was just not believable," Des said.

So next day he went to the same area, and heard similar calls. He played back Carmela's recording, and a bird answered it. Eventually he had a short glimpse of the unmistakable silhouette of a small rail. "I was thinking, 'I bet it's a spotless crake' which is dark with red legs."

Returning towards camp, Des heard the calls again in an area of primary forest. This time, playback attracted a rail to within two metres of where he stood. From the uniform dark plumage, red legs and medium-length red bill Des knew that this was something unknown. The only bird comparable was the much larger Invisible Rail from the Indonesian island of Halmahera, far to the south.

Later that day Des made a short video-recording of one of the rails, and showed it to the other team members. Over subsequent days, the team observed the birds many times. In fact, the number of sightings indicated that the rail was quite common in the area.