Yellow Rail (Coturnicops noveboracensis)

Status: State Threatened (1997).

Occurrence: Rare migrant. Rare summer resident north and east. A map outlining Pre-1977 and 1997 to Present Distribution is available.

Aid to ID: Sparrow size, about 6-7 inches. Short billed; deep tawny-yellow with dark stripes crossed by white bars. In flight, the yellow rail is the only rail with a white patch on the trailing edge of each wing.

Habitat: Occur primarily in extensive meadows of "wiregrass" sedge and sometimes bluejoint, with little or no shrub encroachment.

Food Habits: Diet includes: snails, beetles, grasshoppers, aquatic bugs, dragonfly nymphs, damselfly nymphs, spiders, crayfish, slugs, leeches, tadpoles, small fishes, arrowhead, smartweed, pondweed, bur reed, bristle grass, wheat, oats, bulrush, wigeon grass, and spike rush.

Natural History:

Breeding: Clutch size: 8-10 pinkish eggs; laid from late May through mid-June. Incubation: 17 days. Fledging period is 35 days.
Nest: A woven cup of dead grasses; placed above the water, typically on tussocks.

Management Considerations: Yellow rail populations are currently threatened by their small size and isolation, and by threats to current and potential habitat, especially fragmentation, succession, and impoundment. Fire and water-level management that provide maintenance of extensive sedge meadows is critical.recorded between 1980 and 1987. Proof of breeding in Rock County led the Bureau of Endangered Resources to add this species to the Wisconsin endangered species list. Within its range in Wisconsin, this bird's status has changed from "accidental" to "casual" to "rare." Preservation of large unfragmented bottomland forests will benefit this neotropical migrant.