Yellow Rail

The Yellow Rail is an exceptionally elusive bird that lives and hides among the tall grasses of the prairies. These birds are some of the most secretive birds in North America. They are notoriously difficult for observers to spot in their natural habitat. They only fly at night but may fly during the day if they are under extreme pressure. They prefer to run or hide while staying close to the tall vegetation, making it tricky to find them. Their silent movements make it even harder to find them.

About Yellow Rails

Found mainly in areas that are to the east of the Rocky Mountains, they are birds that chiefly breed in freshwater and brackish marshes with higher margins. Despite limiting themselves to local ranges, their numbers are often grossly underestimated due to their evasive nature. They are often located based on the breeding calls of males, a metallic clank that resembles two stones tapping against each other. If you happen to spot them, you may be surprised that their plumage resembles the scales of an insect.

These birds are extremely understudied due to their shifty personalities. However, they are some of the most fascinating members of the avian world due to their rodent-like behaviors. Today, we are going to dive into the little-known but enticing stories of Yellow Rails.

● Yellow Rail Photos, Color Pattern, Song
● Yellow Rail Size, Eating Behavior, Habitat
● Yellow Rail Range and Migration, Nesting

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Yellow Rail Color Pattern

These birds have evolved in every aspect to perfectly fit into their shifty lifestyles. Their crown is a dark brownish-black, while their upper parts are a deep brown and black with prominent buffy striping. The feathers of their back and tertial parts of their wings have two distinctive white bars. While their underparts blend in with their buffy brown shades. Their chin and throat are nearly white and make way for their primary and secondary flight feathers. The patterns on their flight feathers form a white patch when they extend their wings. This is a distinctive feature that is clearly visible when these birds are flushed from the tall grasses they inhabit. There is no sexual dimorphism between these birds, with males looking identical to females. However, the males’ bill turns yellow during the breeding season, until reverting to the dark olive color that is similar to that of females.

Chicks are a bright pink when they hatch but gradually turn into a dull white as they grow older. Juveniles are generally duller overall but have upper parts that are slightly darker with shades of paler brown. Unlike adults, the upper parts of juveniles don’t have a contrasting dull buff fringing. They don’t have the thin white bars that are characteristic of mature birds either. They have yellowish faces and have buffy underparts.

Description and Identification

The easiest way to find these birds is by keeping an ear out for their calls. They are very hard to see with the naked eye. During the breeding seasons, you can hear the breeding calls of males at wet meadows and marshes with less than 2-3 inches of water. The song is rather unique and resembles the sound of two rocks clanking together. Imitating the sound with the correct rhythm can often encourage males to even call back. During the day, the chances of these birds wandering about freely in the presence of human beings is relatively low. However, close observers may notice a scurry movement through the tall prairie grasses and mistake it for a rodent. Follow the movement and look for buffy patterns against a dark plumage, which resembles scales in the light.

Yellow Rail Song

The most distinctive feature of these birds is the clicking call of adult males during the breeding season. It is generally a series of 5 notes but may sometimes be in a series of 4 notes. It is best rendered as “click click click click click” and sounds exactly like two stones being tapped together. Their other calls include squeaks and wheezes, both of which are associated with hostility. Squeaks are generally given by retreating birds. While only females make wheezing noises during the breeding season when their nests are in danger.

Other vocalizations include a descending cackle, which is 8–15 descending notes in pitch with every successive note. Clunks are also frequently let out, a series of 3–4 notes that resembles a distant knocking on a door. Croaks are similar to clunks but are longer in duration and sound like a quiet frog croaking. Clunks and croaks, in particular, are so close to each other that it becomes difficult to differentiate between them as two separate calls. All three of these vocalizations are given in the context of maintaining pair bonds and during nesting.

Female calls are not well studied, but a few distinct ones have been noted. Disturbed nesting females give out “rohrs”, while whines are mostly used by females to call their chicks. Moans are also given softly when chicks are brooded. Chicks, on the other hand, give out 2 types of calls: wees and peeps. Their wee call is given while chicks are brooded by females, while their peep call may indicate discomfort. Juveniles also include barks, but the context of this unique call is not known.

Yellow Rail Size

Yellow Rails are small birds that are 5.1–7.1 inches in body length with an approximate weight of 1.4–2.4 ounces. They have a chickenlike silhouette and have rather long legs relative to their size. They have short necks, a small head, and a very blunt bill. Their wings are relatively medium-sized and have a wingspan of 11–12.6 inches. In general, adult males are slightly larger and heavier than females.

Yellow Rail Behavior

These birds mostly walk or run in straight lines by placing one foot directly in front of the other. Young birds begin by walking on their toes, but gradually learn to extend them and forward and flex them successively as they grow older. When they run, their head is stretched forward as they use their wings for balance. They hardly ever fly but will if they are disturbed or while migrating. Yellow Rails also fly for a few brief moments after they are flushed out of the vegetation. They also swim rather well and will occasionally cross open water or even forage for food. Diving to escape predators has been scarcely observed but is most likely a common occurrence.

During the breeding seasons, they are pretty territorial and will chase away intruding males from their territories. Aggressive encounters include rapid running retreats from the intruder while letting out their squeak calls. These short encounters are short and infrequent, but they may escalate to pecking on the back or flank of an opponent to further encourage the attacking bird to leave the area. Males are responsible for patrolling the territories, which they do while spreading their wings and displaying their prominent white patches. They may hop towards the opponent when they spot the intruder and give out wheeze calls before assuming a “swanning” position.

These birds are assumed to be monogamous, but studies have shown that cases of males taking on two female mates do exist. Males might bring food to their potential mates and preen them with their bills, but other behaviors during courtship are not known. These birds are apparently solitary after the breeding seasons and are frequently known to overwinter.

Yellow Rail Diet

These birds feed on invertebrates that are found in wetlands, mostly consuming aquatic insects and mollusks like snails. They also consume seeds and other plant matter, with it accounting for almost a third of their diet in some regions. While most of their food is gathered from the ground or from the vegetation, they will readily dip their head into the water to forage. Their prey items include beetles, grasshoppers, ants, fly larvae, bugs, earthworms, spiders, crickets, and small crustaceans like crabs. Their plant-based food includes seeds of smartweed, needle rush, butrush, bristlegrass, foxtail, and presumably other arrays of marsh plants. Like many other birds, they consume more seeds during the winters than in the breeding seasons.

Yellow Rail Habitat

These birds are found in shallow marshes that have sufficient amounts of emergent vegetation. While they prefer fairly short vegetation during the winters, they opt for sites near taller emergent vegetation like cattail during the breeding seasons. Nesting itself occurs among sedges of many kinds, including slender sedges, beaked sedges, Hayden’s sedges, water sedges, chaffy sedges, blister sedges, woolly sedges, scaly sedge, threeway sedge, and tussock sedge. They are typically found in fresh or brackish marshes with water that is no more than a foot deep. Marshes with species of bulrushes are also popular choices, along with various other reedgrasses. Plants like bald spikerush, saltmarsh spikerush, red fescue, prairie cordgrass, foxtail barley, black bent, and sweetgrass may also host these birds. Migrating birds stop at similar habitats but may also show up at wet open meads and agricultural fields with grassy covers.

Range and Migration

These birds are found breeding in wet meadows, fens, and shallow marshes across Canada in regions east of the Rocky Mountains. They are also found in the northeastern portions of the United States, and around the Canada-U.S. border by the Great Plains and Great Lakes. Migration seasons take them towards the coastal areas of southeastern United States, with their wintering grounds concentrated around the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico.

Yellow Rail Lifecycle

The number of broods in a single season is not known, but each clutch has around 8–10 eggs. Incubation may be done by both members of the pair but is mostly done by the females for a period of 17–18 days. Both parents feed the young, who hatch covered in down and capable of leaving the nest within a day. The young are able to forage by themselves after 3 weeks and are most likely able to fly after 5 weeks.

Nesting

The nests of these birds are placed on the ground in the unflooded areas of a marsh, generally in areas where there is relatively dense vegetation. Nest construction is carried out by both members of the pair, who gather materials and then construct a cup of fine sedges. The cup is covered with a canopy of dead marsh plants, and the interior cup is stuffed with finer materials. Separate nests are also built for brooding young.

Anatomy of a Yellow Rail

Yellow Rails are very small birds that are around 5.1–7.1 inches in body length with an approximate eight of 1.4–2.4 ounces. They have a chickenlike silhouette and have rather long legs relative to their size. They have short necks, a small head, and a very blunt bill. Their wings are relatively medium-sized and have a wingspan of 11–12.6 inches. In
general, adult males are slightly larger and heavier than females.

Final Thoughts

These birds are fairly endangered, with Partners in Flight placing this species on the Yellow Watch List. Factors that frequently threaten their numbers include agricultural activities like haying and disking, along with tall structures that they collide with during their migrations at night. Although they are no longer a legal game species, they were hunted for sport for many years in both the United States and in Canada. Habitat loss is also a threat for this species, which depends on wetlands for survival.

Few birds are as secretive as Yellow Rails in North America. Their especially elusive nature has made them all the more intriguing to scientific communities that constantly scrabble for more information about them. Even though they are now legally protected by law, their numbers continue to deplete due to a variety of different reasons. However, if you live around their breeding range, interacting with them discreetly may still be possible. Take a few pebbles and learn the correct morse code of the males’ breeding calls, and maybe you can encourage a response back from some of the most secretive birds in the world!

Ornithology

Bird Watching Academy & Camp Subscription Boxes

At the Bird Watching Academy & Camp we help kids, youth, and adults get excited and involved in bird watching. We have several monthly subscription boxes that you can subscribe to. Our monthly subscription boxes help kids, youth, and adults learn about birds, bird watching, and bird conservation.

Bird Watching Binoculars for Identifying Yellow Rails

The most common types of bird watching binoculars for viewing Yellow Rails are 8×21 binoculars and 10×42 binoculars. Bird Watching Academy & Camp sells really nice 8×21 binoculars and 10×42 binoculars. You can view and purchase them here.

Yellow Rail Stickers

Stickers are a great way for you to display your love for bird watching and the Yellow Rail. We sell a monthly subscription sticker pack. The sticker packs have 12 bird stickers. These sticker packs will help your kids learn new birds every month.

Bird Feeders ForYellow Rails

There are many types of bird feeders. Bird feeders are a great addition to your backyard. Bird feeders will increase the chances of attracting birds drastically. Both kids and adults will have a great time watching birds eat at these bird feeders. There are a wide variety of bird feeders on the market and it is important to find the best fit for you and your backyard.

Bird Houses ForYellow Rails

There are many types of bird houses. Building a bird house is always fun but can be frustrating. Getting a bird house for kids to watch birds grow is always fun. If you spend a little extra money on bird houses, it will be well worth every penny and they’ll look great.