Other Names- Common Clapper- Marsh Clapper- Mud Hen- Meadow Hen- Salt Water Marsh Hen
The "Clapper rail" is a common member of the rail family (Rallidae) living in salt marshes along the US Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts from Massachusettes to Texas and, on the Pacific coast, from Central California to Northern Mexico. The Clapper Rail resides exclusively in salt marshes.
Commonly referred to as a "marsh hen", the "Clapper rail" has a chicken-like shape, but with a long down-turned bill, an upturned tail and a wingspan of about 20 inches. it is a fairly large, chunky, short-tailed, round-winged, ground-dwelling marsh bird
At adult hood the male Clapper Rail stands about sixteen inches tall. Color Their back is colored brownish gray while their belly is lighter. In the winter the color of the Clapper Rail darkens. Its bill is long and slender and people distinguish the Clapper Rail by their dark (not red) eyes.
The young birds are similar in color to the adults but their belly feathers are darker. The young display gray cheeks, a buffy colored chest, white throat and stomach and their flanks are marked with white and gray brown bars.
Their breeding and mating territory is in wetland near open water. The Clapper Rail makes a nest on a platform of dead weeds and grasses on the ground in meadows. The female lays four to twelve eggs, colored white to buff and the shell is splotched with brown and some lavender. The length of of the incubation period is about 21 days and in about 65 days the young birds fledge.The female usualy has only one brood each years but sometimes she will have two broods.
It is noteworthy that some of these birds were found around the margins of salt marshes during high tides after a period of sharp freezing; this combination of events may provide the best opportunity for finding this wanderer from the eastern seaboard of the United States.
It feeds mostly on invertebrates, especially fiddler crabs. Their diet also consists of lesser quantities of fish and plant matter. The presence of intricate networks of tidal channels in marshes is one of the most important characteristics of high quality rail habitat. Rails feed on invertebrates in the mud of the channels during lower tides. The channels are rich in food resources because constant supplies of nutrients enter the marsh with each tide cycle.
The Clapper Rails are more often heard than seen as they prefer to walk or run before flying.
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