White-breasted Waterhen
Amaurornis phoenicurus
Least Concern (IUCN Red List)Rails, Gallinules, and Coots
Photo: Arpit Rastogi · Unsplash · Unsplash License (licence)
Call and song
Recording 1 · song
Recording 2
Recording 3
About the White-breasted Waterhen
Medium-sized, fairly common chickenlike marsh bird found in meadows, ditches, riversides, marshes, as well as parks and farmlands in close proximity to humans; often seen foraging in the open. Adults are dark slaty above and white below, with a rusty patch under the tail. Juvenile similar but duller in color. Remarkably variable song is a series of hooting, grunting, or rasping notes or phrases, repeated monotonously, often from an exposed perch.
Species account: eBird.org, fetched 2025-12-26 · How these pages are made
Where it has been recorded
Recorded in 39 of the 253 countries we have eBird lists for. Each opens that country's checklist.
- Ashmore and Cartier Islands
- Bangladesh
- Bhutan
- British Indian Ocean Territory
- Brunei
- Cambodia
- China
- Christmas Island
- Cocos (Keeling) Islands
- High Seas
- Hong Kong
- India
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Japan
- Kuwait
- Laos
- Macau
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Micronesia
- Mongolia
- Myanmar
- Nepal
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Palau
- Philippines
- Russia
- Singapore
- South Africa
- South Korea
- Sri Lanka
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- Timor-Leste
- United Arab Emirates
- Vietnam
- Yemen
