Characterization: Species measuring about 70 cm in length. Dark brown with a white neck and white stripes on its head and neck.

Distribution: This bird is seen from Florida and Mexico to Bolivia and Argentina, and throughout Brazil.

Habitat: It lives in marshes and flooded fields, riverbanks and wetlands, and in mud puddles.

Habits: It walks openly, entering water up to its belly very frequently and, thanks to its long fingers, it is able to pass over floating plants. It takes off with ease, flying with its neck and legs stretched.

Diet: This bird feeds on large aquatic snails called "aruás," it eats small lizards and feeds on terrestrial snails.

Breeding: It lives in couples and builds large nests on the high vegetation in the marsh, it lays 3-6 stained cream-colored eggs.

In the UFRA area: This bird is not common and is found in the San Francisco Sugarmill farms in wetlands with herbaceous plants, in wetlands with native forests, and in drainage ditches.