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.