The black rail (Laterallus jamaicensis) is a mouse-sized member of the rail family Rallidae that occurs in both North and South America. It is the smallest rail present in North America and is known for its secretive nature.
Taxonomy
thumb|Eastern black rail (L. j. jamaicensis) caught for a scientific [[Bird ringing|banding project in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, United States]]
The black rail was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the rails in the genus Rallus and coined the binomial name Rallus jamaicensis. Gmelin based his description on the "Least water hen" that had been described and illustrated in 1760 by the English naturalist George Edwards in his Gleanings of Natural History. Edwards had obtained a preserved specimen that had been brought to London from Jamaica by Patrick Browne. Browne had briefly mentioned the rail in his book "The Civil and Natural History of Jamaica". The black rail is now placed with 12 other small rails and crakes in the genus Laterallus that was introduced in 1855 by George Robert Gray. The genus name is a portmanteau of Rallus lateralis, a synonym of the binomial name for the rufous-sided crake, the type species of the genus. The specific epithet jamaicensis is from "Jamaica", the type locality.
There are five recognized subspecies:
- Eastern black rail, L. j. jamaicensis – found in eastern North America, the Caribbean, and Central America. Nicknamed the "feathered mouse", the subspecies is partially migratory, with the population breeding in north-central and northeastern United States wintering further south. The US Fish and Wildlife Service declared L. j. jamaicensis a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act in October 2020.
- L. j. murivagans – found in coastal Peru. This subspecies is overall paler, with white bars in the undertail coverts, distinguishing it from other subspecies. There is little information available on this subspecies. However, their voices are quite distinct from the voices of black rails of North America. Preliminary evidence also suggests that the Galapagos crake, another member of the black rail species complex, has a voice that resembles that of the South American black rails.
Description
The black rail is a small black bird with a short bill. Black rails weigh 29–46 g, are 12–15 cm in length, and have a wingspan of 22–28 cm. The body is dark, with white speckles along the back and wings. Both the beak and legs are dark. The eye is brown in juveniles, and gradually becomes red at around 3 months old. The peak of vocalization is during the first two weeks of May, when breeding and courtship behaviors are also at their peak. The South American subspecies have a quite different voice. It is extinct or threatened in many locations due to habitat loss. The largest populations in North America are in Florida and California.
Behavior and ecology
The black rail is rarely seen and prefers running in the cover of the dense marsh vegetation to flying.
In 2023, the first-ever breeding population of black rails was discovered in Louisiana using motion-activated camera traps. Researchers documented adults with at least one chick on two separate occasions.
Food and feeding
The black rail is an opportunistic feeder and consumes a wide range of food. Its diet includes seeds, insects, crustaceans and mollusks. The black rail forages by feeding along the water lines after high and low tide. This draft plan estimated that it would cost $433 million and 60 years to save the eastern black rail from extinction.
The wetland habitat that the black rail depends on has steadily declined through the last several decades, due to draining for development and conversion to agricultural land.