Brown-cheeked Rail

The brown-cheeked rail, or eastern water rail, is 23–29 centimetres long and can weigh 75–190 grams. It differs from the slightly smaller nominate water rail in its paler upperparts, brown-tinged underparts and a brown stripe through the eye. Compared with the form korejewi it is darker above, with a browner breast, white on the throat and a more obvious brown eyestripe. Its vocalisations differ from the other forms, and it is now usually treated as a full species, though its behaviour, nest and eggs are identical to those of the other water rails. (Wikipedia, general species account)

It breeds in northern Mongolia, eastern Siberia, northeast China, Korea and northern Japan and is mainly migratory, wintering in southern Japan, eastern China, northern Borneo and southeast Asia. It is uncommon in northern Bangladesh, Burma, Laos and northern and central Thailand. Migrants have been recorded in Sri Lanka and, in India, mainly in the northern regions; on arrival there rails may be so exhausted that they can be caught by hand. (Wikipedia, general species account)