The mangrove rail (''Rallus longirostris'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

in subfamily Rallinae of family

Rallidae The rails, or Rallidae, are a large cosmopolitan family of small- to medium-sized, ground-living birds. The family exhibits considerable diversity and includes the crakes, coots, and gallinules. Many species are associated with wetlands, althou ...

, the rails, gallinules, and coots. It is found in Central and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

.HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 6. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v6_Dec21.zip retrieved August 7, 2022

Taxonomy and systematics

The mangrove rail was described by the French polymath

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (; 7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopédiste. His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including two prominent ...

in 1781 in his ''Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux'' from a specimen obtained in

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic coast of South America in the Guianas. ...

. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-colored plate engraved by

François-Nicolas Martinet François-Nicolas Martinet (1731 - 1800) was a French engineer, engraver and naturalist. Martinet engraved the plates for numerous works on natural history, especially ornithology. Notable in particular are those for ''l'Ornithologia, sive Synop ...

in the ''Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle'' which was produced under the supervision of

Edme-Louis Daubenton Edme-Louis Daubenton (12 August 1730 – 12 December 1785) was a French naturalist. Daubenton was the cousin of another French naturalist, Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton. Georges-Louis Leclerc, the Comte de Buffon engaged Edme-Louis Daubenton to su ...

to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist

Pieter Boddaert Pieter Boddaert (1730 – 6 May 1795) was a Dutch physician and naturalist. Early life, family and education Boddaert was the son of a Middelburg jurist and poet by the same name (1694–1760). The younger Pieter obtained his M.D. at the Univers ...

coined the binomial name ''Rallus longirostris'' in his catalogue of the ''Planches Enluminées''. The genus ''Rallus'' had been erected in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

in the tenth edition of his '' Systema Naturae''. The specific epithet ''longirostris'' combines the Latin ''longus'' meaning "long" and ''-rostris'' meaning "-billed". The mangrove rail was formerly considered to be

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organis ...

with what are now the Aztec rail (''R. tenuirostris''), Ridgway's rail (''R. obsoletus''), the king rail (''R. elegans''), and the

clapper rail The clapper rail (''Rallus crepitans'') is a member of the rail family, Rallidae. The taxonomy for this species is confusing and still being determined. It is a large brown rail that is resident in wetlands along the Atlantic coasts of the easte ...

(''R. crepitans''), and more recently as conspecific with Ridgeway's and king rails. Worldwide taxonomic systems now agree that each of the five is a separate species based on a 2013 study that described their different genetics and morphologies.Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2022. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2022. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ retrieved November 10, 2022 Many systems treat it as most closely related to Ridgway's rail.del Hoyo, J., N. Collar, and D. A. Christie (2020). Aztec Rail (''Rallus tenuirostris''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.kinrai2.01 retrieved November 22, 2022 Eight subspecies of mangrove rail are recognized: * ''R. l. phelpsi'' Wetmore, 1941 * ''R. l. dillonripleyi'' Phelps Jr. & Aveledo, 1987 * ''R. l. margaritae'' Zimmer &

Phelps Phelps may refer to: Places in the United States * Phelps, Kentucky * Phelps, Michigan, an unincorporated community * Phelps, New York ** Phelps (village), New York * Phelps, Wisconsin, a town ** Phelps (community), Wisconsin, an unincorporated co ...

, 1944 * ''R. l. pelodramus'' Oberholser, 1937 * ''R. l. longirostris''

Boddaert Pieter Boddaert (1730 – 6 May 1795) was a Dutch physician and naturalist. Early life, family and education Boddaert was the son of a Middelburg jurist and poet by the same name (1694–1760). The younger Pieter obtained his M.D. at the Univers ...

, 1783 * ''R. l. crassirostris''

Lawrence Lawrence may refer to: Education Colleges and universities * Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States * Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States Preparator ...

, 1871 * ''R. l. cypereti'' Taczanowski, 1878 * ''R. l. berryorum'' J.M. Maley, J.E. McCormack, W.L.E. Tsai, E.M. Schwab, J. Van Dort, R.C. Roselvy, & M.D. Carling, 2016

Description

The mangrove rail is about long and weighs . It has a long, slender, and slightly decurved bill with a brownish

maxilla The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. T ...

and an orange-yellow

mandible In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bone ...

. Its legs are light orange-red. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies ''R. l. longirostris'' have dull gray-brown upperparts with darker centers to the feathers. They have a white loral streak on their pale gray face, a whitish throat, tawny buff neck and breast with a white center to the belly, and black and white bars on the flanks. Juveniles are similar to adults but are darker and duller.Taylor, B. and D. A. Christie (2020). Mangrove Rail (''Rallus longirostris''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.manrai1.01 retrieved November 22, 2022 Subspecies ''R. l. phelpsi'' has a darker crown and upperparts and paler underparts than the nominate. ''R. l. margaritae'' is the darkest subspecies; it is smaller than the nominate and has bolder bars on the flanks. ''R. l. pelodramus'' is similar in size to ''margaritae'' but paler. The dark markings on the upperparts of ''R. l. cypereti'' are lighter than those of the nominate and the dark flank bars are also lighter.

Distribution and habitat

The mangrove rail is found discontinuously on the Pacific coast of Central America and the Pacific, Caribbean, and Atlantic coasts of South America. It inhabits coastal mangrove swamps and brackish and salt marshes. The subspecies are distributed thus:Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2022. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2022. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ retrieved November 10, 2022 * ''R. l. phelpsi'' Wetmore, 1941 – northeastern Colombia's

La Guajira Department La Guajira () is a department of Colombia. It occupies most of the Guajira Peninsula in the northeast region of the country, on the Caribbean Sea and bordering Venezuela, at the northernmost tip of South America. The capital city of the departm ...

into northwestern Venezuela as far as Miranda state * ''R. l. dillonripleyi'' Phelps Jr & Aveledo, 1987 – northeastern Venezuela's Sucre state * ''R. l. margaritae'' Zimmer, JT &

, 1944 –

Margarita Island Margarita Island (, ) is the largest island in the States of Venezuela, Venezuelan state of Nueva Esparta, situated off the northeastern coast of the country, in the Caribbean Sea. The capital city of Nueva Esparta, La Asunción, is located on t ...

off the Venezuelan coast * ''R. l. pelodramus'' Oberholser, 1937 –

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

* ''R. l. longirostris''

, 1783 – Guyana, Suriname and

* ''R. l. crassirostris''

, 1871 – Brazil from the Amazon estuary south to Santa Catarina state * ''R. l. cypereti'' Taczanowski, 1878 – from Nariño Department in southwestern Colombia through Ecuador into Peru's Department of Tumbes * ''R. l. berryorum'' Maley et al., 2016 - El Salvador, Honduras, and

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

. The population in northwestern Costa Rica is believed to also belong to this subspecies.

Behavior

Movement

The mangrove rail is sedentary.

Feeding

The mangrove rail forages near cover, mostly at low tide and during the morning and early evening. It is believed to hunt by sight, probing sand and mud, tossing aside leaf litter to expose prey, catching small fish in shallow water, and scavenging dead fish. It has a very diverse diet that includes animal prey such as crustaceans (especially crabs and crayfish), molluscs, leeches, aquatic and terrestrial insects, fish, and amphibians. It also feeds on plant matter such as seeds, berries, and tubers, especially in winter.

Breeding

The mangrove rail's breeding season varies geographically but in most areas includes May and June. It makes a nest of sticks and dead leaves near water on the ground or in vegetation. The clutch size is three to seven eggs. Both sexes incubate the eggs for the period of 18 to 29 days.

Vocalization

The mangrove rail's main vocalization is a " ud clattering 'kek-kek-kek…'" that accelerates and then slows; it makes this call mostly at dawn and dusk. Both sexes make "a series of loud, rapid 'kak' notes" as an "advertising call". Another call is a "drawn-out low 'raaaaa'."

Status

The IUCN has assessed the mangrove rail as being of Least Concern. It has a very large range but its population size is not known and is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified. A longer term threat is "the degradation and loss of mangroves and other wetland habitats."

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1271783 mangrove rail mangrove rail Birds of Venezuela Birds of Trinidad and Tobago Birds of the Guianas Birds of Brazil Birds of Ecuador mangrove rail mangrove rail Birds of the Amazon Basin