Dieffenbach's rail
Hypotaenidia dieffenbachii (G. R. Gray, 1843)
Status not recordedbirdsExtinct
The dieffenbach's rail (Hypotaenidia dieffenbachii) is a species in the family Rallidae, order Gruiformes. Recorded adults weigh 185 g to 225 g. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia.
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Quick facts about the dieffenbach's rail
- Weight
- 185 g – 225 g
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- Not recorded
- Egg incubation
- 18.5 days
- Young per litter or clutch
- 5.7
- Litters or clutches a year
- 2
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
Where does the dieffenbach's rail live?
Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.
The dieffenbach's rail is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Is the dieffenbach's rail endangered?
No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.
How is the dieffenbach's rail classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderGruiformes
- familyRallidae
- genusHypotaenidia
- SpeciesHypotaenidia dieffenbachii (G. R. Gray, 1843)
Synonyms Gallirallus dieffenbachii, Gallirallus philippensis dieffenbachii, Nesolimnas dieffenbachii, Rallus dieffenbachii, Rallus philippensis dieffenbachii
Other names and names in other languages (28)
- rascló de DieffenbachCatalan
- chřástal nelétavýCzech
- Hvidbrystet SkovrikseDanish
- DieffenbachralleGerman
- difenbaĥa raloEsperanto
- Rascón de DieffenbachSpanish
- kaelusruikEstonian
- rämeluhtakanaFinnish
- Râle de DieffenbachFrench
- sivogrla kokošicaCroatian
- csíkos guvatHungarian
- Rallo di DieffenbachItalian
- チャタムオビクイナJapanese
- Dieffenbachs RalDutch
- hvitbrynrikseNorwegian
- wodnik chathamskiPolish
- frango-de-água-mascaradoPortuguese
- Пастушок ДиффенбахаRussian
- chriašteľ chathamskýSlovak
- Difenbahov barski petlić (izumro)Serbian
- mehorikirallSwedish
- Dieffenbach YelvesiTurkish
- пастушок ДифенбахаUkrainian
- 呆秧鸡Chinese
- chřástal DieffenbachůvCzech
- frango-d'água-de-dieffenbachPortuguese
- Новозеландский трескунRussian
- 迪凡氏秧雞Chinese
Relatives of the dieffenbach's rail
Other species in the same genus Hypotaenidia.

Barred rail
Hypotaenidia torquata
Bar-winged rail
Hypotaenidia poeciloptera

Okinawa rail
Hypotaenidia okinawae

Lord Howe woodhen
Hypotaenidia sylvestris
Pink-legged rail
Hypotaenidia insignis
CompareDieffenbach's rail vs Barred railDieffenbach's rail vs Bar-winged railDieffenbach's rail vs Okinawa railDieffenbach's rail vs Hypotaenidia vavauensis
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the dieffenbach's rail?
An adult dieffenbach's rail weighs 185 g – 225 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Where does the dieffenbach's rail live?
Catalogue of Life checklists list the dieffenbach's rail for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.
What kind of animal is the dieffenbach's rail?
The dieffenbach's rail (Hypotaenidia dieffenbachii) belongs to the family Rallidae in the order Gruiformes.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
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Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits · CC BY 4.0 · v1
Oliveira, B.F., São-Pedro, V.A., Santos-Barrera, G., Penone, C. & Costa, G.C. (2017) AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits. Scientific Data 4: 170123. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.123. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4644424.v5 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Shirey, V., Larsen, E., Doherty, A. et al. (2022) LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits. Scientific Data 9: 382. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01473-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19874602.v1 - Northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits (raw datasets) · CC BY 4.0 · 2024-12-17
Logghe, G., Batsleer, F., Maes, D. et al. (2025) An in-depth dataset of northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits. Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e146785. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e146785. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13379714 - ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles · CC BY 4.0 · v1-2
Oskyrko, O., Mi, C., Meiri, S. et al. (2024) ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data 11: 243. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03079-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24572683.v4 - Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits · CC BY 4.0 · 1.0-2022-06-17
Mull, C.G., Pacoureau, N., Pardo, S.A. et al. (2022) Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits and abundance time-series. Scientific Data 9: 559. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01655-1. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6656525 - SquamBase 1.0 - a dataset of squamate species traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0-dryad-v5
Meiri, S. (2024) SquamBase - a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography 33(4): e13812. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13812. Data: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t3b - TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe · CC BY 4.0 · 2.0
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Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Dieffenbach's rail (Hypotaenidia dieffenbachii). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/dieffenbachs-rail
“Dieffenbach's rail (Hypotaenidia dieffenbachii).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/dieffenbachs-rail.
@misc{dieffenbachs_rail_2026,
title = {Dieffenbach's rail (Hypotaenidia dieffenbachii)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/dieffenbachs-rail},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}