Clapper rail Rallus longirostris

Identification Tips:

• Length: 12 inches Wingspan: 20 inches
• Fairly large, chunky, short-tailed, round-winged, ground-dwelling marsh bird
• Long, slightly decurved bill
• Gray-brown cap, hindneck, back and upperwings
• Brown back feathers and wing coverts edged with gray
• Most often seen walking, rarely flies
• Often flicks and cocks its short tail, exposing white undertail coverts
• Sexes similar
• Juveniles similar to adults, but upperparts darker

Atlantic Coast adult (R.l.crepitans):

• Gray cheeks
• Buffy breast
• White throat and belly
• Flanks barred with white and gray-brown

Gulf Coast (R.l.scottii) and West Coast adults (R.l.levipes and R.l.yumanensis):

• Cinnamon breast, brighter in R.l.levipes
• White or pale throat
• Cheeks gray in R.l.scottii, brownish-gray in Western subspecies
• Flanks barred with white and dark brown

Similar species:

Downy young Clapper Rails can be mistaken for Black Rails but are distinguished by their dark (not red) eyes, the lack of spotting on the back and the lack of barring on the flanks. The smaller Virginia Rail has a red bill and much more contrast between the gray cheeks and the cinnamon underparts. The King Rail is very similar, but is more common in freshwater marshes. Adult King Rails are easily separated from Atlantic Coast Clapper Rails by their reddish brown head, neck and underparts and more sharply-defined barring on flanks. The rich reddish brown wing coverts and tawnier back separate King Rails from all races of Clapper Rail. Hybridization is known with the King Rail.

Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.