Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Fish and Wildlife Service

Evens, Jules. 1999/2000. Mystery of the marsh: the California black rail. Tideline Vol 19
No. 4 1-3.

Mystery of the Marsh: The California Black Rail

by Jules Evens

Photo by Rich Stallcup

Rarely heard and even more rarely seen, this quail-like bird, about the size of an Easter chick, scurries through the salt marsh vegetation, scarcely ever revealing itself. Nor should it. During 15 years of research in the tidal marshes of San Francisco Bay, I've actually seen only a few dozen black rails (Laterallus jamaicensis coturniculus). Most often these sightings occur moments before a predator, usually an egret or heron, snatches it from the edge of the marsh. As the small bird struggles in the beak of the larger bird, I get a fleeting glimpse of the plumage - charcoal and chestnut, lightly speckled with white - that identifies the prey as a black rail. Then it's gone; down the gullet. "Secretive," "furtive," "elusive" are a few of the adjectives used to describe the California black rail. I'd add also "mysterious" to the list of modifiers.

The first record of this bird for California was of a single individual apparently collected on the Farallon Islands in 1859, more than 20 miles from the closest marsh. Based on a few sightings and specimens of birds collected from flooded marshes, naturalists in the mid 1940's understood that the little black rail was confined chiefly to salt marshes bordering large bays on the California coast. These marshes ranged from Tomales Bay in Marin County to San Diego County. Over the next half century, those coastal marshes would be so
drastically altered by the bourgeoning human population that by mid-century

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Last updated: May 27, 2008

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