Cocos buff-banded rail

How it lives

The Cocos rail uses all ground habitats on North Keeling, from the lagoon shore to the forest floor, at about 7 to 8 birds per hectare according to Wikipedia. I did not read a source on its own breeding. For the buff-banded rail as a whole, nests are in dense vegetation near water, clutches are 2 to 8 eggs, both parents incubate for 18 to 19 days, and chicks leave the nest soon after hatching.

Where it goes

This rail lives on the ground and was once found across the southern atoll before disappearing there. People have since moved it: in April 2013, 39 rails from Pulu Keeling were released on Horsburgh Island in the southern atoll. Buff-banded rails as a species can fly and are highly dispersive, but I did not read how far this subspecies travels.

We only draw a journey on the map when scientists have tracked it or clearly documented it. For this animal we have not found one yet.

Populations

This is a subspecies of the buff-banded rail, which is Least Concern worldwide. The Cocos form is listed as Endangered under Australia's EPBC Act, and The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2020 assesses it as Endangered against IUCN criteria (A2b, B1+2ab(v), C1). It declined after human settlement of the southern atoll and the last confirmed record there before the reintroduction was in 1991, leaving about 800 birds on Pulu Keeling. The population on Horsburgh Island grew from 39 released birds to about 54 in October 2014 and about 121 in June 2015. Pulu Keeling National Park now says about 700 rails live in the park, while Wikipedia gives 850 to 1,000. The action plan says the small Pulu Keeling population appeared to have declined steeply in recent years. Listed threats include introduced yellow crazy ants, a possible arrival of new predators and cyclones.