Yellow RailBy: Shalisha Miclette

Description of the Yellow Rail:• small bird• they are about 13-18 centimeters tall • looks more like a small mammal• has yellow strips • upperparts of the birds body is dark brown• throat is white • buff cheat• flanks (the sides of the bird between the wing and the legs or hips.)• bellies are barred black and white• head is buff with a dark brown cap • eye patches around there eyes • bill is short and is yellow • wings are a dark color with large white patches that become visible when they take flight

Where do they live? In autumn the yellow rail lives in…• Hay fields• Grain fields• Wet meadows• Interior and coastal marshlandsIn breeding season…• Fresh and blackish water marshes• Higher (drier) marginsThey also live in…• Fens• Boggy swales

What does the yellow rail eat?The yellow rail eats…• Snails• Other water animals• Seeds• Reeds• Sedges

• Earth worms

What are their Predators?• Humans

What does the Yellow Rail Prefer?The yellow rail is the second smallest rail bird in north America. Like other rails the yellow rail prefers to run or hide instead of flying and moves beneath the vegitation. This bird is so silent you could be inches away from them and never catch a glimpse of them. They sneak through the grass like phantoms.

Breeding Season! male call is 5 notes and goes something like this, click-click,

click-click-click Which is easily copied by tapping to stones

together. Hunters have used the method of tapping to stones together, to trap the male yellow rails. They know that birds respond to such imitations. Do to these trapping and hunting the yellow rail is widely distributed all over United States and Canada.

During breeding season the yellow rails inhabitants fresh and blackish water marshes, but they prefer higher, drier, margins.

They nest on the ground. Breeding season is late April-May They lay 4-10 eggs, when born chicks are black and have a

yellow beak

http://birdcinema.com

/view_video.php?view

key=472509627f7f4c2a4478

Why are yellow rails threatened?• Yellow rails are threatened because they are very easy to

hunt/trap. Hunters/Trappers get these little birds for meat and other stuff. Two stones tapping to gather brings in the birds because of the sound.

• Habitat loss do to development and draining wetlands• Change of vegetation in the shallow wetlands were the yellow

rail inhabitants• Breeding range has decreased

• http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/en/Business/Species/2ColumnSubPage/MNR_SAR_YLLW_RL_EN.html

References:

• http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/literatr/wetbird/yera/yera.htm

Video references:

• http://www.arkive.org/yellow-rail/coturnicops-noveboracensis/#image-G118795.html

THE END!!