Russet-crowned Crake

The russet-crowned crake (Rufirallus viridis) is a species of bird in subfamily Rallinae of family Rallidae, the rails, gallinules, and coots. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, the Guianas, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela. == Taxonomy == The russet-crowned crake was formally described in 1776 by the German zoologist Philipp Statius Müller under the binomial name Rallus viridis. Müller based his account on a plate of the "Râle de Cayenne" that had been published to accompany the Comte de Buffon's Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. The russet-crowned crake is now placed in the genus Rufirallus that was introduced in 1856 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. The genus name combines the Latin rufus meaning "rufous" with the genus Rallus that had been introduced by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 for the rails. The specific epithet viridis is Latin meaning "green". Two subspecies are recognised: R. v. brunnescens (Todd, 1932) – central north Colombia R. v. viridis (Müller, PLS, 1776) – east Colombia, south Venezuela through the Guianas and Amazonian Brazil to east Peru and north Bolivia == Description == The russet-crowned crake is 16 to 18 cm (6.3 to 7.1 in) long. Males weigh 55 to 63 g (1.9 to…