(c) Ashok Khosla
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Small as a sparrow and quiet as a mouse, the elusive Black Rail fascinates researchers and birders.Breeding and wintering in the United States, this smallest relative of coots and cranes inhabits a variety of salt and fresh water marshes dominated by grasses and sedges. With the precipitous loss of wetlands in the United States, the Black Rail may be in trouble.
The Black Rail is difficult to observe and rarely flushes; it prefers to slink and dart through dense grasses like a mouse.Well after dark, this rail is more likely to be heard than seen; its call is an emphatic, squeaky "kick-ee-doo!"The keen, patient observer may glimpse a tiny, dark waterbird with red eyes, a brown collar, white spots on the back, a short, black bill, and feet with long toes, which dangle in flight.The sexes are similar.On average, Black Rails grow 6 inches long, and weigh 1.1 ounces, with a wingspan of 9 inches.
The Black Rail breeds on the eastern seaboard from New Jersey to southern Florida and on the Gulf Coast from Florida to Texas.A small population of California Black Rails, a subspecies once considered lost, resides permanently in the shrinking estuaries of the San Francisco Bay. Black Rails also occur irregularly through northern Central America and into Chile.
A legend for the range map to the right can be found
here.
Black Rails breed in salt or freshwater marshes, where the ground is moist but not entirely submerged.They also use grassy wet meadows. Migration and wintering habitats have not yet been observed, with the exception of the resident California Black Rail, which occupies similar territories year round.
Limited observations suggest that Black Rails are generalists and consume a variety of insects, spiders, small crustaceans, snails, and seeds. Their bills seem adapted for picking food from the ground or shallow water. More research on the Black Rail's diet and foraging behavior is needed.
The reproductive biology of the Black Rail has been poorly recorded.Males and females vocalize on the breeding grounds, and may form pairs.The nest construction process is unknown.The nest is a woven cup of sedges and grasses with a canopy, often located in a clump of vegetation.A "ramp" connects the ground or water to the nest entrance.Both parents incubate 6 to 8 whitish eggs, finely spotted with browns.In 17 to 20 days the black, downy chicks hatch and appear "semi-precocial"—capable of walking within a day, but not of feeding themselves.The growth and development of Black Rail chicks is unknown.
In the eastern United States, the Black Rail migrates short distances from the northern parts of its breeding range.From March to May and again from September to November, migration occurs at night over a broad range, rather than along specific routes. The California population does not appear to migrate.
Eddleman, W. R., R. E. Flores, and M. L. Legare. 1994. Black Rail (
Laterallus jamaicensis). In
The Birds of North America, No. 123 (A. Poole and F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, D.C.: The American Ornithologists' Union.
Evens, Jules. 1999/2000. "Mystery of the Marsh: the California Black Rail."
Tideline: 19 (4) pp. 1-3.
Kaufman, Kenn.
Lives of North American Birds. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, 1996.
Sibley, David Allen. 2000.
The Sibley Guide to Birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
