Sora
Porzana carolina
Identification Tips:
- Fairly small, chunky, short-tailed, round-winged, ground-dwelling
marsh bird
- Short, thick bill
- Most often seen walking, rarely flies
- Often flicks and cocks short tail while walking, exposing white
undertail coverts
- Sexes similar
Adult:
- Yellow bill
- Black lores and throat (paler in basic plumage)
- Blue-gray face, sides of neck, and breast
- Brownish cap, nape, hindneck, back and upperwings
- Whitish belly
- Dark brown and white barring on flanks
Juvenile:
- Pale yellowish bill
- Buff-brown face, foreneck and breast; whitish throat
- Brownish cap, nape, hindneck, back and upperwings
- White spotting on back and upperwing coverts
- Flanks less distinctly barred with white and dark brown
Similar species:
Adult Sora is distinctive with its short, thick yellowish
bill, black face and dark gray and brown plumage. Immature 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.