Figure 1. Photo taken in poor light, ISO 800, aperture time 1/125s, 2.8f.

This Neocrex erythrops was found in the neighbourhood of Reserva Ecológica Mãe-da-Lua, in degraded, secondary growth caatinga. To attract the Crake, I used playbacks of a voice recording of the Paint-billed Crake from Venezuela or Peru ("Birds of Brazil" CD by P. Boesman).

The bird appeared nearly instantly after the first playback. It came close to my hide, but stayed in the shadow, and constantly kept moving, nearly always behind dense vegetation. This made it difficult to take a good picture.

The Paint-billed Crake is well-known in the local farming community, because it likes to nest in weeds which grow in neglected plantations. When the workers finally come to pull the weeds out, they sometimes encounter this bird, or its nest. The local name "Pãe Luiz" means "Father Louis". I could not find out what the origin of this interesting name is.

Many thanks to Raimundo Lino da Silva Filho ("Raimundinho"), who helped searching for "Father Louis" during several weeks. Eventually, he noted this bird close to his own house. Thanks also to Dan Lane, who helped out with the recordings we used for playback.