Bird Family: Rallidae (Rails)

Total species: 159

The family Rallidae are those mysterious birds that birders like myself fail to find all too often. They look sort of like chickens and their most typical habitats are near the water’s edge.

Rails are prone to being endangered for a few reasons. There are quite a few island species for one, and these island species have often evolved to become flightless. Of course, another reason that rails are often threatened is that they like marshes and water in general. Birds that like water are often threatened due to such land being converted for human purposes.

Some rails have already gone extinct due to introduced species. But there are also some rather lucky rail species. For example, the Guam Rail went extinct due to the introduction of the Brown Tree Snake at one point. There were still captive populations, and an intense captive breeding program was established. Eventually, a wild-breeding population came back via this program.

Other rails may go extinct soon, like the Sakalava Rail, which is thought to have a population of just a few hundred. It’s only range is in Madagascar, which isn’t very hopeful for these species since Madagascar does not have ideal conservation policies. In this case, this rail is threatened by habitat loss. Still other species like the Samoan Moorhen and the Makira Moorhen are classified as critically endangered and may even be extinct!

Even when not flightless, rails don’t like flying much, which might explain why they so rapidly become flightless.

Introduction