Quantcast

Yellow Rail

Coturnicops noveboracensisOrder: GRUIFORMESFamily: Rails and Coots (Rallidae)

Yellow Rail Portrait_2
  Copyright 2002-2007 Whatbird.com
Click here for licensing information Splitbar

General

Yellow Rail: Small rail with pale yellow-striped, dark brown upperparts. Throat is white, breast is buff, and flanks and belly are barred black-and-white. Head has buff face with dark brown cap and eye patches. Bill is short and yellow. Wings are dark with large white patches visible in flight. Tail is short and black. Sexes are similar. Juvenile is darker.

Range and Habitat

Yellow Rail: Breeds from the Maritime Provinces westward to Alberta and the southern part of the Northwest Territories, northern Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Oregon. Migrates along the Atlantic coast to South Carolina and Florida, spending winters along the entire Gulf Coast, from Florida to south Texas. Breeding grounds include large, wet meadows or shallow marshes with sedges and grasses. Winters on salt marshes, rice fields, and damp meadows.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"tic-tic, tictictic, tic-tic tictictic"

Interesting Facts

 The Yellow Rail was first described in 1789 by Johann Friedrich Gmelin, a German naturalist.

 They are very elusive and seldom seen; when approached, they are more likely to rely on camouflage than flight.

 Their distinctive clicking calls are given almost exclusively at night.

 A group of yellow rails are collectively known as a "clique" of rails.



Author

Gary Owen Dick

Splitbar
Range Map for Yellow Rail
.
Bird database and its related content, illustrations and media is Copyright © 2002 - 2007  Whatbird.com
All rights reserved. No part of this web site may be reproduced without written permission from Mitch Waite Group.
 Privacy Policy.
Percevia® Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.
Family Rail (Rallidae)_blue
Species Coturnicops noveboracensis
Length6 - 7.25 Inches
Wingspan11.5 Inches

Yellow Rail

Yellow Rail: Small rail with pale yellow-striped, dark brown upperparts. White throat, buff breast, flanks, and belly are barred black-and-white. Head has buff face with dark brown cap, eye patches. Bill is short, yellow. Wings are dark with large white patches visible in flight. Short black tail.

● Song: "tic-tic, tictictic, tic-tic tictictic"

● Foraging & Feeding: Yellow Rail: Diet includes snails, beetles, grasshoppers, aquatic bugs, dragonfly nymphs, damselfly nymphs, spiders, crayfish, slugs, leeches, tadpoles, small fish, arrowhead, smartweed, pondweed, bur reed, bristle grass, wheat, oats, bulrush, grass, and spikerush.

● Breeding & nesting: Yellow Rail: Seven to ten creamy buff eggs, sometimes spotted with red brown, are laid in a woven cup nest of dead grasses built above the water, typically on a tussock. Incubation ranges from 16 to 18 days and is carried out by the female.

● Similar species: Yellow Rail: Immature Sora is much larger, has bright yellow bill, white undertail coverts, and darker upperparts spotted with white.

Flight Pattern

Weak fluttering flights of short duration.
Yellow Rail Body Illustration_2
● Range & Habitat: Yellow Rail: Breeds from the Maritime Provinces westward to Alberta and the southern part of the Northwest Territories, northern Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Oregon. Migrates along the Atlantic coast to South Carolina and Florida, spending winters along the entire Gulf Coast, from Florida to south Texas. Breeding grounds include large, wet meadows or shallow marshes with sedges and grasses. Winters on salt marshes, rice fields, and damp meadows.
BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester
PopulationUncommon to rare
MigrationMigratory
Weight1.8 Ounces