#yellow rail

[antiqueanimals]

Virginia Wildlife; vol. 32, no. 10. October, 1971. Illustration by John W. Taylor.

Internet Archive

[st9yliquid]

[musictherapy611]

Daily Bird: Yellow Rail

Range: Gulf and southern Atlantic coasts

More information: here

Photo: https : // upload . wikimedia . org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Yellow_Rail.jpg

[dendroica]

Nature lovers ask B.C. Hydro to delay destruction of rarely-seen bird's nesting ground - British Columbia - CBC News

Nature lovers are asking B.C. Hydro to delay the destruction of a wetland used as a nesting ground for a rarely-seen bird. Watson Slough is a popular birding site, with trails maintained by Ducks Unlimited and listed as a "hot spot" by the National Audubon Society. It is also scheduled to be logged this month as B.C. Hydro prepares for the Site C dam project and eventually flooded as the dam is complete.

"I really hope they don't go ahead now," said wildlife biologist Mark Phinney in a phone interview as he and other wildlife enthusiasts hiked through the slough to mark World Wetlands Day. "There's no need to do that just yet."​

He's concerned about species like the yellow rail, a secretive wading bird that nests in the wetland. "There's relatively few known locations in the province where they actually nest, so it's really quite important," said Phinney.

The yellow rail is listed as a "species of special concern" under Canada's Species at Risk Act and red-listed provincially because it is found in very few places in the world. It is considered particularly sensitive to human development.

The yellow rail isn't the only creature to use the slough — over 120 bird species have been sighted there over the last few years, along with mammals and some rare plant species.

"They are one of the most productive ecosystems on the planet," wrote science columnist Torah Kachur for a feature on the importance of wetlands to biodiversity. "Wetlands are the world's nurseries."

Watson Slough is unique to the Peace River region. It contains the area's only "marl fen" ecosystem, created by lime-rich marlstone seeping into a wetland, as well as several uncommon "tufa seep" ecosystems. Although BC Hydro has committed to working with Ducks Unlimited to offset the destruction by building new wetlands, both marl fens and tufa seeps are impossible to recreate.

[sophia-sol]

reading about birds, as you do, and this description of the yellow rail (a very secretive bird) is so funny: "if you see the bird well enough to actually note the back pattern, it is probably not a yellow rail"

[athelas-starter-kit]

"Yellow Rails have a small head, almost no neck, a plump, short-tailed body, and short legs."

[zoologica42]

Ah, Cats.

[lotsofbirds]

Yellow Rail (Coturnicops noveboracensis)

Distribution: North America

IUCN Status: Least Concern

{ Ecology } { Vocalizations } { eBird }

(Photo by Julio Mulero // CC 2.0)