Gallirallus

Gallirallus is a genus of rails that live in the Australasian-Pacific region. The genus is characterised by an ability to colonise relatively small and isolated islands and thereafter to evolve flightless forms, many of which became extinct following Polynesian settlement. Following recent taxonomic revisions, there is only one known extant species in this genus along with several extinct species of dubious classification, with all other species being moved to Hypotaenidia, Cabalus, or Aptenorallus. Many of the rails, including the well-known weka of New Zealand, are flightless or nearly so. Many of the resultant flightless island endemics became extinct after the arrival of humans, which hunted these birds for food, introduced novel predators like rats, dogs or pigs, and upset the local ecosystems. A common Polynesian name of these rails, mainly relatives of G. philippensis, is veka/weka (in English, this name is generally limited to Gallirallus australis). On the other hand, Gallirallus species are (with the exception of the weka) notoriously retiring and shy birds with often drab coloration. In the online list maintained by Frank Gill, Pamela Rasmussen and David Donsker on behalf of the International Ornithological Committee (IOC), the genus contains only one extant species: These species were placed by BirdLife International and IUCN in the separate genus Hypotaenidia, but are still considered part of Gallirallus by The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World / eBird: Okinawa rail, Gallirallus okinawae Barred rail, Gallirallus torquatus Pink-legged rail, Gallirallus insignis Roviana rail, Gallirallus rovianae Guam rail, Gallirallus owstoni – extinct in the wild (late 1980s) Lord Howe woodhen, Gallirallus sylvestris Buff-banded rail, Gallirallus philippensis Dieffenbach's rail, Gallirallus dieffenbachii – extinct (mid-19th century) Wake Island rail, Gallirallus wakensis – extinct (1945) Tahiti rail, Gallirallus pacificus – extinct (late 18th – 19th century) The Calayan rail (formerly Gallirallus calayanensis) was placed into the genus Aptenorallus in 2021.