The pale-vented bush-hen or rufous-tailed bush-hen is a medium sized waterbird, mainly blue-grey with a buff vent and undertail. It is found in Australia, the Moluccan Islands, New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.
Region
Australasia and Melanesia
Typical Environment
Occurs from the Moluccan Islands and New Guinea through the Bismarck Archipelago and Solomon Islands to northern and eastern Australia. It favors dense understory near water, including swamp forests, rank grasses, reedbeds, and riparian thickets. In Australia it often uses paperbark swamps, vine tangles, and overgrown creek margins, and may venture into sugarcane and other tall crops adjacent to wetlands. It keeps close to cover and uses well-worn runways through vegetation, emerging cautiously to feed along muddy edges.
Altitude Range
Sea level to 1200 m
Climate Zone
Tropical
Ease of Keeping
Beginner friendly: 2/5
A shy, ground-dwelling rail, the pale-vented bush-hen is far more often heard than seen, slipping through dense vegetation with quick, furtive movements. It prefers to run rather than fly, taking to the air only in short, fluttering bursts when flushed. Its loud, repetitive calls at dawn and dusk help reveal its presence in otherwise quiet thickets.
Temperament
secretive and skulking
Flight Pattern
short rapid wingbeats; reluctant flier
Social Behavior
Usually found singly or in pairs, sometimes with dependent young. Nests are concealed in dense vegetation near water, with a cup of grasses and leaves. Both parents likely share incubation and chick-rearing duties, leading downy young through cover soon after hatching.
Migratory Pattern
Resident
Song Description
Vocalizations include loud, resonant cackles, squeals, and repetitive piping notes, often delivered from cover. Calls are most frequent at dawn and dusk and can carry some distance, betraying birds that are otherwise invisible.
Plumage
Mostly blue-grey to slate on head, neck, and underparts with warmer olive-brown to brownish upperparts; vent and undertail are buff to rufous, giving a pale/washed look under the tail.
Diet
Omnivorous, taking insects, spiders, snails, worms, and small amphibians, as well as seeds and fallen fruits. It forages by probing and picking along muddy edges and among wet leaf litter. Occasionally it gleans invertebrates from low vegetation and will flip debris to uncover prey.
Preferred Environment
Feeds along shaded creek margins, swamp edges, and within dense grasses and reeds where cover is immediate. It also uses wet ditches and overgrown agricultural fringes adjoining wetlands.
