Introduction

Flufftail are one of the world's rarest water birds.

"Flufftails are nine tiny waterbird species that belong to the family Sarothruridae, now split from the rail family Rallidae. All belong to the same genus (the family also includes two species of Madagascan woodrails and four species of New Guinean and Indonesian forest rails). Flufftails are shy birds, but White-winged singularly fails to herald its presence. Of the 10,369 species hosted by the bird-sound website Xeno-canto, there is no recording of White-winged Flufftail, and what recordings there are mostly circulate in academic circles.

A few fortunate individuals have succeeded in seeing the species in the field, but sightings mostly consist of flushed individuals flying away at waist height, then dropping back into cover within 30-50 metres.

If you were to see the species well in flight, you’d note the conspicuous and diagnostic white wing patches formed by the secondaries. On the ground, the unworn chestnut-and-black-barred bases of the ‘fluffy’ tail would be apparent, along with a black bill and legs and, if the bird was male, a bright chestnut head, breast and neck, white-spotted black back and wings, and black-and-white-barred flanks and vent on otherwise white underparts. If it was female, you’d note these features were duller, along with a streaked charcoal cap on its crown. Juveniles are uniformly dark grey with less robust features. Each is no longer than 16 cm from beak tip to tail tip." - BirdLife: An African Enigma Conserving One of the Worlds Rarest Waterbirds