Malaysian Rail-babbler

Eupetes macrocerus

The rail-babbler or Malaysian rail-babbler (Eupetes macrocerus) is a strange, rail-like, brown and pied ground-living bird. It is the only species in the genus Eupetes and family Eupetidae. It lives on the floor of primary forests in the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra (the nominate subspecies macrocerus), as well as Borneo (ssp. borneensis). It is distantly related to African crow-like birds. Its population has greatly decreased because much of the lowland primary forest has been cut, and secondary forests usually have too dense a bottom vegetation or do not offer enough shade to be favourable for the species. However, it is locally still common in logged forest or on hill-forest on slopes, and probably not in immediate danger of extinction. The species is poorly known and rarely seen, in no small part due to its shyness.