Laterallus

Not to be confused with Lateralus or Lateralus (song).

Laterallus is a genus of birds in the rail family Rallidae. These small, relatively short-billed terrestrial rails are found among dense vegetation near water in the Neotropics, although a single species, the black rail, also occurs in the United States.

Laterallus
Black rail (Laterallus jamaicensis)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Gruiformes
Family:	Rallidae
Genus:	Laterallus Gray, G.R., 1855
Type species
Rallus melanophaius[1] Vieillot, 1819
Species
see text

Taxonomy

The genus was erected by the English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1855 with the rufous-sided crake (Laterallus melanophaius) as the type species.^[2] The genus name is a portmanteau of Rallus lateralis, a synonym of the binomial name for the rufous-sided crake.^[3] The authors of a molecular genetic study published in 2019 proposed that the yellow-breasted crake, the dot-winged crake, and the flightless Inaccessible Island rail should be moved to this genus.^[4] Additional changes to the content of the genus were made based on the molecular phylogenetic study by Emiliano Depino and collaborators that was published in 2023.^[5][6]

Species

The genus contains 11 species:^[6]

• Speckled rail, Laterallus notatus (formerly placed in the genus Coturnicops)
• Dot-winged crake, Laterallus spiloptera
• Inaccessible Island rail, Laterallus rogersi
• Black rail, Laterallus jamaicensis
• Galapagos crake, Laterallus spilonota
• Yellow-breasted crake, Laterallus flaviventer
• Grey-breasted crake, Laterallus exilis
• White-throated crake, Laterallus albigularis
• Ruddy crake, Laterallus ruber
• Rusty-flanked crake, Laterallus levraudi
• Rufous-sided crake, Laterallus melanophaius

The rufous-faced crake (Rufirallus xenopterus), red-and-white crake (Rufirallus leucopyrrhus) and the black-banded crake (Rufirallus fasciatus) were formerly placed in this genus.^[6]