Rufous-necked Wood-Rail

The rufous-necked wood rail is 29 to 33 cm (11 to 13 in) long and males weigh on average 292 g (0.644 lb). The sexes are alike. They have long, stout, yellow-green bills and red legs and feet. Adults' head, neck, and breast are rufous brown. Their nape and upper back are gray and the rest of the back olive brown to greenish olive. Their wings are greenish olive and chestnut. Their rump, tail, flanks, and undertail coverts are black. Their throat is white and their belly grayish brown. Juveniles are much duller overall. Their upperparts are like the adults' but duller. Their face, chin, and upper neck are buffy brown to dirty white with a cinnamon wash. Their lower flanks and undertail coverts are deep brownish olive and the rest of their underparts buffy brown with an ochre cinnamon wash.

The rufous-necked wood rail is found in Mexico on the Pacific coast and the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula and generally (though discontinuously) along both the Pacific and Caribbean coasts of Central America. In South America it is found along the Pacific coast discontinuously from Colombia through Ecuador to northern Peru, along the Caribbean coast from Colombia through Venezuela and the Guianas, and on Trinidad. In addition, a vagrant spent much of July 2013 at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. Many bird enthusiasts and watchers traveled to the state to view it. The rufous-necked wood rail was long thought to be primarily a coastal species, and in parts of its range is known only from mangrove forest. However, a growing number of inland sightings in deciduous, humid, and montane forest as high as 1,400 m (4,600 ft) are suggestive of elevational migration, with mangroves being only winter habitat.

The rufous-necked wood rail generally forages at morning and evening twilight. Though it is generally a secretive bird, when foraging it will often move several meters from cover onto open mudflats and stream banks. Its primary prey is crabs and it also takes other aquatic invertebrates.