Guide to North American Birds

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Photo: Rick & Nora Bowers/Vireo

Yellow Rail

Coturnicops noveboracensis

One of the most secretive birds in North America, almost never seen under normal conditions, although its metallic clicking calls may echo across the northern prairie marshes on summer nights. Rarely flies in the daytime except under extreme pressure. Somewhat erratic in occurrence on the breeding grounds: may be common at a given locale in wet years, scarce or absent in dry years.

Conservation status	Undoubtedly has declined in this century, especially at southern end of breeding range, because of loss of habitat. Localized race in central Mexico is probably endangered if not extinct.
Family	Rails, Gallinules, Coots
Habitat	Grassy marshes, meadows. In summer, favors large wet meadows or shallow marshes dominated by sedges and grasses. Typically in fresh or brackish marsh with water no more than a foot deep. In winter mostly in coastal salt marsh, especially drier areas with dense stands of spartina; also rice fields, damp meadows near coast.

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Feeding Behavior

Foraging of wild birds essentially unknown. Yellow Rails in captivity feed only by day, picking food from ground, plants, or water.

Eggs

Usually 8-10. Buffy white, with reddish brown spots around larger end. Incubation is apparently by female only, about 17-18 days. Male may remain near nest during incubation. Young: Apparently fed by female only. Remain in nest only about 2 days, then follow female about in marsh. When not foraging, female and brood go to second nest (not the one in which the eggs hatched). Young find much of their own food after 2 weeks, all of it after 3 weeks; probably able to fly at about 5 weeks.

Young

Apparently fed by female only. Remain in nest only about 2 days, then follow female about in marsh. When not foraging, female and brood go to second nest (not the one in which the eggs hatched). Young find much of their own food after 2 weeks, all of it after 3 weeks; probably able to fly at about 5 weeks.

Diet

Mostly insects, snails, seeds. Diet not well known, but small freshwater snails reported to be important at some seasons. Eats a wide variety of insects (especially aquatic ones), also spiders, small crustaceans, probably earthworms. Also eats many seeds, at least in fall and winter.

Nesting

Male defends territory by calling, mostly at night. In courtship, male and female may preen each other's feathers. Nest site is in shallow part of marsh, on damp soil or over water less than 6" deep. Nest is shallow cup of sedges and grasses, with concealing canopy of dead plants above it. May build more than one nest, with extra(s) being used for brooding the chicks after they leave their hatching nest. Male takes part in starting nests, but female completes the work.

Illustration © David Allen Sibley.
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Text © Kenn Kaufman, adapted from
Lives of North American Birds

Migration

Migrates at night. Very rarely detected in migration, but individuals sometimes found when they stop over in city parks or other spots with little cover. Migrates south mostly in September and October, north mostly in April and early May.

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Migration

All Seasons - Common
All Seasons - Uncommon
Breeding - Common
Breeding - Uncommon
Winter - Common
Winter - Uncommon
Migration - Common
Migration - Uncommon

Songs and Calls

2 or 3 clicks, sounding like pebbles being tapped together, repeated over and over in a long series. Usually heard at night.

Audio © Lang Elliott, Bob McGuire, Kevin Colver, Martyn Stewart and others.
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How climate change could affect this bird's range

In the broadest and most detailed study of its kind, Audubon scientists have used hundreds of thousands of citizen-science observations and sophisticated climate models to predict how birds in the U.S. and Canada will react to climate change.

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