The
rail-babbler or
Malaysian rail-babbler (
Eupetes macrocerus) is a strange, rail-like, brown and pied inhabitant of the floor of primary forest in the
Malay Peninsula and
Sumatra (the nominate subspecies
macrocerus), as well as
Borneo (ssp.
borneensis), distantly related to
African crow-like
birds. Its population has greatly decreased because much of the lowland
primary forest has been cut, and
secondary forests usually have too dense a bottom vegetation or do not offer enough shade to be favourable for the species. However, it is locally still common in logged forest or on hill-forest on slopes, and probably not in immediate danger of
extinction. The species is poorly known and rarely seen, in no small part due to its shyness.