Rallids montage # 2 (Patreon)

I've drawn quite a few new rails - and have now been able to tidy them and start compositing them. Here we have those ready to go so far. At upper left is the large, robust, vaguely ibis-like Aphanapteryx of Reunion (the reconstruction of which was discussed here a few posts ago). At upper right is the large, robust Chatham Islands rail Diaphorapteryx (sometimes called the Chatham Islands giant rail or Hawkin's giant rail). The life appearance of this rail is unknown but I was inspired by Gallirallus species (like the weka) when reconstructing it - I was pleased to see after getting started on it that Paul Martinson's reconstruction (for his 1991 book with Brian Gill: New Zealand's Extinct Birds).

And below these two extinct species we have (left to right) a moorhen (Gallinula chloropus), Red-legged crake Rallina fasciata and Baillon's crake Porzana pusilla, all of which were drawn following examination of photos. These taxa have been chosen because I need them as exemplars of genera (or, groups of genera) that I plan to depict on cladograms. This is all for The Big Book but it will all be used at Tet Zoo as well. I still need to do another 10, both extant and extinct.