Black Rail

STATE YEAR LIST for 2022

During June 2022 our eBird “State Year List” added  only THREE additional species for the year:  Common Gallinule, Red Crossbill, and Black Rail (this rail was reported to eBird but is NOT even shown on this eBird listing below because eBird classifies it as a “Regionally Sensitive” species in the USA and Canada, and automatically hides details reported about it).    

(Photo not of CT bird: Black Rail in Martinez CA 03.2015 by Julio Mulero (cropped) flickr Creative Commons)

During January birders reported 175 bird species, which initialized this year’s eBird CT “state year list”.  FOUR species were added in February, and in March EIGHTEEN additional new species were added to our state year list (bringing the state year list up to 197 species as of the end of March).  During April birders reported FIFTY-THREE additional species, bringing the state year list up to 250 species (actually up to 251, due to the 1 for the swallow-tailed kite which had not been reported to eBird yet).  During May birders reported FORTY-FOUR additional species, bringing the state year list up to 295 species… 

This project will rely 99% on eBird data, from this 2022 year’s CT  “STATE YEAR LIST”  of species:  https://ebird.org/region/US-CT?yr=cur&m=&rank=lrec  < click to view eBird State Year List (SYL) for CT. Note that on this SYL eBird displays only non-sensitive species in CT (see https://support.ebird.org/en/support/solutions/articles/48000803210 ), and that some birds are “regionally sensitive”, e.g., Black Rail in USA.   You can also see a static image of the end-of-June State Year List in the Appendix below  – scroll down to the bottom.

This is a summary of the Connecticut SYL (State Year List) evolving month-by-month for 2022:

RARE BIRD SPECIES  of the month:

Black Rail  was noted briefly in CT in June, and was chosen, unanimously, as our June BOTM, Bird Of The Month, even though it is not displayed in any detail by eBird, and not shown on the SYL listing.  Black Rail is clearly the rarest of the three new species for June.  See below for some information about Black Rails. 

Here is the eBird map for Black Rail as of the end of June (including our Connecticut bird), and no matter how close we zoom-in, eBird will not display the blue and red icon points, which could reveal the more exact locations of these rails.

This very high level view shows the Black Rail in North and South America…

Zooming in to the Northeast USA the pink blocks indicate all the Black Rails ever reported to eBird, including a few in Connecticut.

Zooming in to the state of Connecticut we are still unable to see the blue and red point icons, which would pinpoint the locations of the rails a bit more. EBird does that deliberately to protect this Regionally Sensitive species from being pursued too closely by too many birders.

SOME REFERENCES:

Black Rail:  Wikipedia: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_rail

Black Rail:  eBird article:

https://ebird.org/species/blkrai/US-CT

Black Rail:  All About Birds:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/black_rail

Black Rail:  Crossley ID Guides online:   no details at this page… 

Black Rail:  Crossley ID Guide to Eastern Birds: 

See Nick Bonomo’s excellent review of this book.  Nick notes that the only Black Rail photo in this book is of a bird with its wings spread…

https://www.shorebirder.com/2011/06/review-crossley-id-guide.html

Black Rail:  Audubon Guide to North American Birds:

https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/black-rail

Here is the Black Rail range map, according to this Audubon Guide.

Black Rail:  Birds Of The World link, regarding diet of Black Rail:

https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/blkrai/cur/introduction

Including this very informative report about their diet: 

Feeding

Main Foods Taken

Small (<1 cm) aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates, seeds.

Microhabitat For Foraging

Poorly known. Presumably on or near substrate at edges of stands of emergent vegetation. In tidal smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) marsh, both above and below high-tide line (Weske 1969).

Food Capture And Consumption

Poorly known. Bill shape suggests generalized feeding methods such as gleaning or pecking at individual items, thus reliance on sight for finding food. Probably a daytime feeder; active throughout day (Weske 1969, Flores and Eddleman 1991).

Diet

Major Food Items

Limited information; probably an opportunistic forager. Individuals collected in San Diego Bay, CA, in 1912 had exclusively eaten isopod crustacean Alloniscus mirabilis (Huey 1916), whereas birds from Jamaican population ate “a few hard seeds” (Gosse and Hill 1847). Weske (Weske 1969) reported on foods of 5 birds. One male from New Jersey contained insect fragments, and 1 female contained a weevil (Curculionidae) and 3 genera of predaceous diving beetles (Hydrophilidae: Enochrus, Hydrochara, and Tropisternus).

Quantitative Analysis

Diet of 3 other birds from Florida (2) and New Jersey (1) was 98-100% animal matter, including snails (Gastropoda), insects, and an amphipod (Weske 1969). Diet of 7 birds collected as trap mortalities in Arizona was quantified from esophageal, proventriculus, and gizzard contents by Flores and Eddleman (Flores and Eddleman 1991). A nesting bird contained predaceous diving, ground (Carabidae), and other beetles (9% of items, 73% of volume); earwigs (Dermaptera; 3%, 14%); Olney and giant (S. californicus) bulrush seeds (85%, 13%); and southern cattail (Typha domingensis) seeds (3%, trace). Three birds collected in late summer and autumn had fed on grasshoppers (Acridae; 2% of items, 59% of volume); beetles (14%, 30%), ants (Formicidae; 27%, 3%); earwigs (4%, 3%); spiders (Lycosidae and others; 1%, 2%); snails (1%, 1%); bulrush seeds (40%, 1%); and insects (Reduvidae, Aphidae, Dolichopodidae, Kinnaridae, Homoptera, Diptera; 11%, trace). During winter, 3 Black Rails ate mostly bulrush seeds (45% of items, 47% of volume) but also earwigs (1%, 25%); beetles (2%, 25%); ants (1%, 3%); and cattail seeds (51%, trace). Change in diet probably related to lower availability of insects in winter (Flores and Eddleman 1991)