Yellow rail Coturnicops noveboracensis

Identification Tips:

• Length: 5 inches
• Small, chunky, short-tailed, round-winged, ground-dwelling marsh bird
• White secondaries
• Short, thick, yellow bill
• Black upperparts with thin white fringes to feathers and broad buffy streaks
• Dark crown, yellow supercilium, and dark eyeline
• Breast buffy yellow
• Belly whitish
• Flanks and undertail coverts barred black and white
• Rarely flies, therefore, rarely seen
• Sexes similar
• Juvenile darker than adult

Similar species:

The immature Sora is similar to the Yellow Rail but is larger, and has white undertail coverts and darker upperparts that are spotted with white rather than streaked with buff and black. In flight, the Yellow Rail shows white secondaries.

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