Several of these chicken-size terrestrial rails occupied a particular hog-wallow along the road into town. The bright red eyes indicate this is an adult. This species formerly went under the name Gray-necked Wood-Rail ranging in the American tropics from Mexico to N. Argentina. However it is now split into Russet-naped Wood-Rail and Gray-cowled Wood-Rail, with the former ranging from Mexico to northern Costa Rica, and the latter from Costa Rica to northern Argentina. Birds in Belize and adjacent Mexico and Guatemala are assigned the race A.a. albiventris which differs from adjacent subspecies in having a small white patch on its lower flank, partly hidden behind vegetation here.
