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Limpkin

Aramus guaraunaOrder: GRUIFORMESFamily: Limpkin (Aramidae)

Limpkin Portrait
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General

Limpkin: Large, unique marsh bird with dark brown body and white streaks on neck, back, wings, and breast. Bill is slightly decurved. Neck and legs are long. Sexes are similar. Juvenile is paler than adult. Vaguely resembles an ibis.

Range and Habitat

Limpkin: Resident locally in southern Georgia and Florida; also found in the American tropics. Preferred habitats include wooded and brushy swamps and marshes.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"kkrrrraaow"

Interesting Facts

  • The Limpkin is named for its limping-like flight with its dangling legs and jerky wing beats.
  • The only species in its family, it is considered most closely related to rails and cranes.
  • It was once very common in Florida, but due to the decline of its primary food source, the Florida Apple Snail, it is now listed as a SSC (species of special concern).
  • A group of limpkins are collectively known as a "hobbling" of limpkins.


Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Range Map for Limpkin
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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.
Family
Species Aramus guarauna
Length26 - 28 Inches
Wingspan42 Inches

Limpkin

Limpkin: Large, unique marsh bird, dark brown body, white streaks on neck, back, wings, breast. Bill is slightly decurved. Neck and legs are long. Vaguely resembles an ibis. Feeds on freshwater snails, mussels, frogs, crustaceans and insects. Direct flight with quick upstrokes and slow downstrokes.

● Song: "kkrrrraaow"

● Foraging & Feeding: Limpkin: Eats apple snails, other mollusks, frogs, and insects. Slowly walks along edges of ponds or streams foraging in shallow water.

● Breeding & nesting: Limpkin: Three to eight olive or buff eggs marked with brown are laid in a shallow nest made of marsh vegetation built just above the water; sometimes builds a stick nest in a low tree or bush. Eggs are incubated for 27 days by both parents.

● Similar species: Limpkin: Yellow-crowned and Black-crowned Night-Herons have much shorter legs and necks, and shorter, thicker, straight bills.

Flight Pattern

Rapid wing beats followed by short glide.
Limpkin Body Illustration
● Range & Habitat: Limpkin: Resident locally in southern Georgia and Florida; also found in the American tropics. Preferred habitats include wooded and brushy swamps and marshes.
BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester
Population
MigrationNonmigratory
Weight38.4 Ounces