RAILS

Author: Fred J. Kane
Published on: May 19, 2000

RAILS Black Rail Laterallus jamaicensis AND Yellow Rail Coturnicops noveboracensi)

There are twelve species of rails throughout the world. They are the Carolina, Chick Billed, Clapper, Common, Great Red Breasted, King, Little Black, Little Yellow, Long Billed, Virginia, Yellow and The Black rail. I will speak a little about the Black Rail a fairly uncommon species of bird and the Yellow Rail.

BLACK RAIL The Black Rail is the smallest Rail in North America at about 6 inches in length. It is difficult not to identify this bird when seen because of its black barred head, whose forehead and crown are dusky colored, with the back of its neck and parts of its back is chestnut colored and finely barred with white.

The belly of the Black Rail and the underside of its tail are a deep brown with thin white bars. Around its eye it is colored dusky with some white spots.

The Black Rail's habitat is usually in a wetland near open water. This bird seems to be rare in New England but it does breed in Maine, Connecticut & Massachussetts. The Black rail is distributed throughout Southern Ontario Province, Massachussets, south to Kansas, Illinois and South Carolina.

The Black Rail builds a very well made cupped shape nest made of weed stems and fine grasses in a concealed depression on the ground. Unless you know exactly what you are looking for you could miss the Black Rail's nest.

After mating the female Rail lays 6 to 9 eggs that are marked with small chestnut spots. The pair of rails sometimes have 2 broods in one year.

When the Black Rail is disturbed from it home site it will run swiftly like a mouse through undergrowth and it is seldom seen flying. It flies infrequently although it migrates to The Bermda Islands. In the North American States in its spring, summer and fall habitat it is seldom seen flying. Yet it winters in Texas,The Gulf States, Jamaica, Bermuda, Guatemala. It must fly, it certainly doesn't walk.

In Jamaica it has ben seen hiding its head with its tail cocked up, thinking it is safe making it fair game for any hunter.

The Black Rail's diet consists mostly of Insects, Seeds and Aquatic Invertebrates.

YELLOW RAIL

The status of the Yellow Rail is threatened. This 6 inch bird, similar in size to the Black Rail is a rare visitor inn the north and eastern United States. Like the Black Rail the Yellow Rail is short billed with a yellow background crossed by white bars. In flight, the yellow rail is the only rail with a white patch on the trailing edge of each wing. Its preferred environment is in meadows of sedge with little or no shrub encroachment.

Like the Black rail its diet is similar too. On its menu are snails, beetles, grasshoppers, aquatic bugs, dragonfly nymphs, damselfly nymphs, spiders, crayfish, slugs, leeches, tadpoles, small fishes, arrowhead, smartweed, pondweed, bur reed, bristle grass, wheat, oats, bulrush, wigeon grass, and spike rush. After breeding the female Yellow Rail lays 8-10 pinkish eggs from late May through mid-June. In about 15 days the young break through the egg shell and fledge in about 5 weeks.

The nest of the Yellow Rail again is similar to the Black Rail in that it is a woven cup of dead grasses. The Yellow Rail makes sure the nest is placed above the water. Yellow Rail populations are currently in jeopardy because of their small size and isolation. Also there are threats to current and possible habitat, especially segmenting, continual logging, and seizure of forest land by private ctizens through real estate. Preservation of large segemnts of bottom land forests will benefit this migrant of the tropics.

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