The small Yellow Rail is known for its elusive ways; much of its life history remains unknown. In wet meadows and grassy fresh and salt water marshes, this relative of coots and cranes stays close to the ground and prefers to run, rather than fly from threats. The Yellow Rails' migration, wintering, and breeding habitats have been shrinking. With an estimated global population of only 17,500 individuals, conservation efforts have focused on saving the bird's habitat.
Few observers ever see a Yellow Rail on the ground, even when the male's "song," a
tic-tic tictictic, announces its close presence. Most often, this rail is seen in flight, identifiable by its warm yellow chin and chest, yellow bill, yellow and black stripes on the upper parts, and flashes of white in the upper and under wings. A rare good look reveals a dark cap over yellowish eyebrows and a dark brown mask. Yellow Rails are only slightly larger than sparrows, growing to about 7.25 inches. They weigh 1.8 ounces, with a wingspan of 11 inches. The sexes are similar.
The Yellow Rail breeds from the Canadian Maritimes to the wetlands of the northern Great Plains, including parts of the upper Midwest. Around Saint John's Bay, Canada, this rail was common as recently as 2004. There is a small isolated breeding colony in Oregon's Klamath Basin. The bird's wintering grounds extend from the coast of North Carolina through Florida, and into the Gulf Coast of southern Texas.
A legend for the range map to the right can be found
here.
During the breeding season, the Yellow Rail inhabits damp meadows and marshes with abundant grasses and sedges. This rail prefers a mixture of new growth and dry, dead grasses that form mats and overhanging cover. Standing water over a foot deep, and areas with small trees are avoided. Wintering birds often use mature salt marshes, well above the waterline. They can also be found in rice fields.
The core of the Yellow Rail's diet consists of small snails, insects, spiders, and some small crustaceans, picked from the ground or vegetation as the birds walk through rank grass. They also consume seeds in winter. More information is needed about this rail's feeding habits.
Much of the Yellow Rail's breeding biology has not yet been observed. This marsh bird arrives on its breeding grounds from late April through mid-May. Males establish large territories by continuous singing, and parading with raised wings to flash their white wing patches. Monogamous pairs may preen each other as part of their courtship.
Both sexes construct a woven nest of grasses and sedges, which the female finishes and conceals with a canopy of vegetation. She lays 5 to 10 eggs—cream colored and heavily marked with brown— and incubates them for about 23 days. Within a day of hatching, Yellow Rail chicks can walk, but require feeding and brooding for up to three weeks. The female makes a low "ror" call when disturbed at the nest, and calls chicks with a soft whinny. Juveniles can fly at 35 days, but little is known about their natural history.
The migratory habits of Yellow Rails are not fully understood. Collisions with transmission towers suggest that this rail migrates at night and sometimes in small flocks. At the end of April, birds reach their southernmost breeding grounds, from which they depart in September. This rail does not appear to follow defined routes.
Bookhout, T. A. 1995. Yellow Rail (
Coturnicops noveboracensis). In
The Birds of North America, No. 139 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.
Kaufman, Kenn.
Lives of North American Birds. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, 1996.
Robert, M., et al. "Yellow Rail Distribution and Numbers in Southern James Bay, Quebec, Canada." Waterbirds 27:3 Sep 2004, pp. 282-288.
Robert, M., P. Laporte, and R. Benoit. "Summer Habitat of Yellow Rails,
Coturnicops noveboracensis, along the St. Lawrence River, Quebec." Canadian Field-Naturalist 114:4 9 Oct-Dec 2000, pp. 628-635.
Sibley, David Allen. 2000.
The Sibley Guide to Birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
