Blue-faced Rail

The blue-faced rail, also called the bald-faced or Schlegel’s rail, is a secretive forest rail about 30 cm long. Its bare, brightly coloured face provides the feature behind the English name and contrasts with the darker head and body. It belongs to Gymnocrex, a small group of forest rails rather than the more familiar open-marsh rails. The species is endemic to Sulawesi, and the available account does not identify any separate island forms (Wikipedia general species account).

The species uses moist lowland forest, dense shrubland and vegetation associated with rivers. Insects and snails are the two foods specifically recorded in the account opened. Its secretive behaviour and dense habitat make direct observation difficult, so presence may be easier to establish from calls or brief movement through cover than from prolonged views. No reliable clutch, nest or incubation details were available in the opened source, and none are extrapolated from related rails (Wikipedia general species account).