Virginia rail

This article is about the bird. For the high speed rail line serving Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., see Virginia Railway Express. For rail travel in the whole state, see List of railroads in Virginia.

Virginia rail
File:Rallus limicola -Cloisters Park, Morro Bay, California, USA-8 (1).jpg
In Morro Bay, California, USA
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Gruiformes
Family:	Rallidae
Genus:	Rallus
Species:	R. limicola
Binomial name
Rallus limicola Vieillot, 1819

The Virginia rail (Rallus limicola) is a small waterbird, of the family Rallidae.

Adults are mainly brown, darker on the back and crown, with orange-brown legs. They have long toes, a short tail and a long slim reddish bill. Their cheeks are grey, with a light stripe over the eye and a whitish throat.

File:RallusVirginianusKeulemans.jpg

R. l. aequatorialis (left) and nominate (right)

Their breeding habitat is marshes from Nova Scotia to California and North Carolina, also in Central America and South America. The female lays 5 to 13 eggs in a platform built from cattails and other plants in a dry location in the marsh. Both parents care for the young, who are able to fly in less than a month.

Northern populations migrate to the southern United States and Central America. On the Pacific coast, some are permanent residents.

These birds probe with their bill in mud or shallow water, also picking up food by sight. They mainly eat insects and aquatic animals.

This bird has a number of calls, including a harsh kuk kuk kuk, usually heard at night.

These birds remain fairly common despite continuing loss of habitat, but are secretive by nature and more often heard than seen.

The southern subspecies R. l. aequatorialis is sometimes split as the Ecuadorian rail (Rallus aequatorialis).

External links

External identifiers for Virginia rail
Encyclopedia of Life	1049277
ITIS	176221
NCBI	156759

• Virginia rail on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility
• Virginia rail - Rallus limicola - USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
• Virginia rail species account - Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• Virginia rail photo gallery at VIREO (Drexel University)
• Virginia rail videos, photos, and sounds at the Internet Bird Collection
• Interactive range map of Rallus limicola at IUCN Red List maps