Black Rail (Laterallus jamaicensis)
×
About Black Rail (Laterallus jamaicensis)
- Kingdom: Animals
- Phylum: Chordates
- Class: Birds
- Order: Cranes, Rails, and Allies
- Family: Rails, Gallinules, and Allies
Rounded Global Status Rank: G3 - Vulnerable
Reasons: Breeding range extends from North America to South America, but populations apparently are highly localized and relatively small, and trend is downward. Secretive habits and lack of information from most of range make status difficult to determine.
Other Considerations: BirdLife International/IUCN assessed this species as Near Threatened in 2012.
NatureServe
Visits
-
2019-01-20San Pablo Bay, United States of AmericaWatching a great blue heron, I saw the first rail when it was being eaten by the heron. I am not 100% sure on the first ID. I continued to watch the heron, and it flushed a second rail which flew to the road and landed about 20 feet in front of where I was (on the side of the road). It sat on the shoulder just feet away from joggers, bikers, cars. I stayed near the rail photographing for the next hour or so when it started lightly raining. The rail perked up and walked around for about 10 seconds before flying across the road toward the forest. It landed on a slope where it started flopping around a bit on the hillside trying to get footing on uneven ground. A nearby Red-shouldered Hawk took the opportunity to catch the rail and fly off to an unknown location
