Limpkin - Aramus guarauna

While having lunch at Lake Tarpon a large bird zoomed towards us wailing and screaming as it landed in a tree nearby. Gotta' be a Limpkin, as no other bird makes sounds quite like it. The Limpkin proceeded to fly from the tree and land on the roof over our heads! As we watched Common Gallinules and BT Grackles the Limpkin suddenly flew down to the floating vegetation, too close for a full digiscoped shot. 

It foraged for a bit, and quickly found an apple snail so large that it was challenged to open its bill wide enough to get a grip. This was the first of many Limpkins seen on our trip, a noticeable trend upward from previous visits.

Here's one of many Limpkins we saw at the Celery Fields, east of Sarasota:

 

The long toes are useful for walking in the aquatic vegetation. 

Limpkin, Aramus guarauna, is rarely seen north of Florida in the U. S., and is still recovering from being hunted almost to extinction in Florida the 1920's. Sightings in Georgia mark the limits of its range. U.S. population if perhaps 5-10,000 pairs, considered stable, and no longer a species of special concern. Total western hemisphere population is also said to be stable, numbering about 1,000,000, with most birds residing in the Caribbean Islands, Central America, and South America east of the Andes. Loss of wetlands, especially in places like Florida, contributed to the decline, but the species seems to accept human presence pretty well, and the invasion of Apple Snails has no doubt aided their survival. The Limpkin has been extending its range north in Mexico as the Apple Snail's invasion progresses.

Aramus guarauna is nidifugous. Say what? Well, "nidus" is a nest, and "fugous" means to flee (fugitive, etc.). So a nidifugous bird leaves the nest soon after hatching, like a chicken or a duck. This means of course that nidifugous birds are semi-precocial. But A. guarauna chicks can't totally fend for themselves at first, relying on a parent to feed them for about 5 weeks until they learn to find and open apple snails. On leaving the nest the parents make a "brood platform" where they will feed the chicks, which may number about 5. See BNA #627, D. Bryan, 2002 for a fascinating account of the species.

Aramus guarauna is the only species in the genus Aramus, and Aramus is the only genus in the family Aramidae. Taxonomists are not quite sure where to put this family, as there are no close relatives. Aramus is usually placed with the Rails and Cranes (Gruiformes), and probably closest to the Cranes in terms of shared DNA and skeletal structure.