why swamphens have white undertail coverts

[Andrew Taylor <>]

There is a new paper in Evolutionary Ecology,
"Why some rails have white tails: the evolution of white undertail
plumage and anti-predator signaling"

The authors believe the white-tail on swamphens (and other rails)
are to signal that there is danger from a predator to other swamphens.

I am not sure how convincing the analysis is - but the discussion of
the various rails around the world and their behaviour is
fascinating.

Currently the full text of the paper is freely available at:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/5k21n03541762178/

Andrew