Rail (bird)
Rails Temporal range:
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Dusky moorhen, Gallinula tenebrosa | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Gruiformes |
Family: | Rallidae Rafinesque, 1815 |
Genera | |
Some 40 living, and see below. |
Rails (avian family Rallidae) are a large,
Name
"Rail" is the anglicized respelling of the French râle, from Old French rasle. It is named from its harsh cry, in Vulgar Latin *rascula, from Latin rādere ("to scrape").[3]
Morphology
The rails are a family of small to medium-sized, ground-living birds. They vary in length from 12 to 63 cm (5 to 25 in) and in weight from 20 to 3,000 g (0.7 oz to 6 lb 10 oz). Some species have long necks and in many cases are laterally compressed.[4]
The
Rails exhibit very little sexual dimorphism in either plumage or size. Two exceptions are the watercock (Gallicrex cinerea) and the little crake (Zapornia parva).[7]
Flight and flightlessness
The wings of all rails are short and rounded. The
Flightlessness in rails is one of the best examples of parallel evolution in the animal kingdom. Of the roughly 150 historically known rail species, 31 extant or recently extinct species evolved flightlessness from volant (flying) ancestors.[9] This process created the endemic populations of flightless rails seen on Pacific islands today.
Many island rails are flightless because small island habitats without mammalian predators eliminate the need to fly or move long distances.
In addition to energy conservation, certain morphological traits also affect rail evolution. Rails have relatively small flight muscles and wings to begin with.[13] In rails, the flight muscles make up only 12–17% of their overall body mass.[9] This, in combination with their terrestrial habits and behavioral flightlessness, is a significant contributor to the rail's remarkably fast loss of flight;[14] as few as 125,000 years were needed for the Laysan rail to lose the power of flight and evolve the reduced, stubby wings only useful to keep balance when running quickly.[15] Indeed, some argue that measuring the evolution of flightlessness in rails in generations rather than millennia might be possible.[11]
Another factor that contributes to the occurrence of the flightless state is a climate that does not necessitate seasonal long-distance migration; this is evidenced by the tendency to evolve flightlessness at a much greater occurrence in tropical islands than in temperate or polar islands.[16]
It is paradoxical, since rails appear loath to fly, that the evolution of flightless rails would necessitate high dispersal to isolated islands.[13] Nonetheless, three species of small-massed rails, Gallirallus philippensis, Porphyrio porphyrio, and Porzana tabuensis, exhibit a persistently high ability to disperse long distances among tropic Pacific islands,[13] though only the latter two gave rise to flightless endemic species throughout the Pacific Basin.[17] In examining the phylogeny of G. philippensis, although the species is clearly polyphyletic (it has more than one ancestral species), it is not the ancestor of most of its flightless descendants, revealing that the flightless condition evolved in rails before speciation was complete.[17]
A consequence of lowered energy expenditure in flightless island rails has also been associated with evolution of their "tolerance" and "approachability".
Behaviour and ecology
In general, members of the Rallidae are omnivorous generalists. Many species eat
The most typical family members occupy dense vegetation in damp environments near lakes, swamps, or rivers. Reed beds are a particularly favoured habitat. Those that migrate do so at night.
Most nest in dense vegetation. In general, they are shy, secretive, and difficult to observe. Most species walk and run vigorously on strong legs, and have long toes that are well adapted to soft, uneven surfaces. They tend to have short, rounded wings, and although they are generally weak fliers, they are, nevertheless, capable of covering long distances. Island species often become flightless, and many of them are now extinct following the introduction of terrestrial predators such as cats, foxes, weasels, mongooses, rats, and pigs.
Many reedbed species are secretive (apart from loud calls),
The rails have suffered disproportionally from human changes to the environment, and an estimated[21][22][23] several hundred species of island rails have become extinct because of this. Several island species of rails remain endangered, and conservation organisations and governments continue to work to prevent their extinction.
Reproduction
The breeding behaviors of many Rallidae species are poorly understood or unknown. Most are thought to be
Rallidae and humans
Some larger, more abundant rails are hunted and their eggs collected for food.[25] The Wake Island rail was hunted to extinction by the starving Japanese garrison after the island was cut off from supply during World War II.[26] At least two species, the common moorhen and the American purple gallinule, have been considered pests.[25]
Threats and conservation
Due to their tendencies towards flightlessness, many island species have been unable to cope with introduced species. The most dramatic human-caused extinctions occurred in the Pacific Ocean as people colonised the islands of Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia, during which an estimated 750–1800 species of birds became extinct, half of which were rails.[27] Some species that came close to extinction, such as the Lord Howe woodhen, and the takahē, have made modest recoveries due to the efforts of conservation organisations. The Guam rail came perilously close to extinction when brown tree snakes were introduced to Guam, but some of the last remaining individuals were taken into captivity and are breeding well, though attempts at reintroduction have met with mixed results.[28][29][30]
Systematics and evolution
The family Rallidae was introduced (as Rallia) by the French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1815.[31][32] The family has traditionally been grouped with two families of larger birds, the
The cladogram below showing the phylogeny of the living and recently extinct Rallidae is based on a study by Juan Garcia-R and collaborators published in 2020.
Rallidae |
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Extant genera
The list maintained on behalf of the
- Canirallus – grey-throated rail
- Mustelirallus – (4 species)
- Pardirallus (3 species)
- Amaurolimnas – uniform crake
- Aramides – wood rails (8 species)
- Rallus – typical rails (14 species)
- Crecopsis – African crake
- Rougetius – Rouget's rail
- Dryolimnas – (1 living species, 1 recently extinct)
- Crex – corn crake
- Aramidopsis – snoring rail
- Lewinia – (4 species)
- Aptenorallus – Calayan rail
- Habroptila – invisible rail
- Gallirallus – weka
- Eulabeornis – chestnut rail
- Cabalus – (1 possibly extinct species, 1 recently extinct)
- Hypotaenidia – Austropacific rails (8 living species, 4 recently extinct)
- Porphyriops – spot-flanked gallinule
- Porzana – (3 species)
- Tribonyx – nativehens (2 species)
- Paragallinula – lesser moorhen
- Gallinula – moorhens (5 living species, 2 recently extinct)
- Fulica – coots (10 living species, one recently extinct)
- Porphyrio– swamphens and purple gallinules (10 living species, 2 recently extinct)
- Micropygia – ocellated crake
- Rufirallus – (2 species)
- Coturnicops – (3 species)
- Laterallus – (13 species)
- Zapornia – (10 living species, 5 recently extinct)
- Rallina – (4 species)
- Gymnocrex – (3 species)
- Himantornis – Nkulengu rail
- Megacrex – New Guinea flightless rail
- Poliolimnas – white-browed crake
- Aenigmatolimnas – striped crake
- Gallicrex – watercock
- Amaurornis – bush-hens (5 species)
Additionally, many prehistoric rails of extant genera are known only from
Recently extinct genera
- Mundia – Ascension crake (recently extinct; flightless, single island, lost by early 1800s to introduced cats and rats)
- Aphanocrex – Saint Helena rail (recently extinct; flightless, single island, lost by 1500s to introduced cats and rats)
- Diaphorapteryx – Hawkins's rail (recently extinct; flightless, two islands, lost between 1500 and 1700 to overhunting)
- Aphanapteryx – Red rail (recently extinct; flightless, single island, lost by 1700 to overhunting and introduced pigs, cats and rats)
- Erythromachus – Rodrigues rail (recently extinct; flightless, single island, lost by 1760 to overhunting, destruction of habitat by tortoise hunters, and introduced cats)
- Genus Cabalus – Chatham rail and New Caledonian rail (sometimes included in Gallirallus; extinct around 1900)
- Genus Capellirallus – Snipe-rail (recently extinct; flightless, single island, lost by no later than 1400s to introduced rats)
- Genus Vitirallus – ]
- Genus Hovacrex – Hova gallinule (recently extinct; flight ability uncertain, single island, lost by no later than Late Pleistocene)[dubious ]
The undescribed Fernando de Noronha rail, genus and species undetermined, survived to historic times. The extinct genus Nesotrochis from the Greater Antilles was formerly considered to be a rail, but based on DNA evidence is now known to be an independent lineage of gruiform more closely related to Sarothruridae and adzebills.
Fossil record
, as well from the less comprehensively studied strata elsewhere:- Genus Eocrex (Wasatch Early Eocene of Steamboat Springs, USA; Late Eocene – ?Oligocene of Isfara, Tadzhikistan)
- Genus Palaeorallus (Wasatch Early Eocene of Wyoming, USA)
- Genus Parvirallus (Early – Middle Eocene of England)
- Genus Aletornis (Bridger Middle Eocene of Uinta County, USA)[35] – includes Protogrus
- Genus Fulicaletornis (Bridger Middle Eocene of Henry's Fork, USA)
- Genus Latipons (Middle Eocene of Lee-on-Solent, England)
- Genus Ibidopsis (Hordwell Late Eocene of Hordwell, UK)
- Genus Quercyrallus (Late Eocene -? Late Oligocene of France)
- Genus Belgirallus (Early Oligocene of WC Europe)
- Genus Rallicrex (Corbula Middle/Late Oligocene of Kolzsvár, Romania)
- Rallidae gen. et sp. indet. (Late Oligocene of Billy-Créchy, France)[36]
- Genus Palaeoaramides (Late Oligocene/Early Miocene – Late Miocene of France)
- Genus Rhenanorallus (Late Oligocene/Early Miocene of Mainz Basin, Germany)
- Genus Paraortygometra (Late Oligocene/?Early Miocene -? Middle Miocene of France) – includes Microrallus
- Genus Australlus (Late Oligocene – Middle Miocene of NW Queensland, Australia)
- Genus Pararallus (Late Oligocene? – Late Miocene of C Europe) – possibly belongs in Palaeoaramides
- Genus Litorallus (Early Miocene of New Zealand)
- Rallidae gen. et sp. indet. (Bathans Early/Middle Miocene of Otago, New Zealand)[37]
- Rallidae gen. et sp. indet. (Bathans Early/Middle Miocene of Otago, New Zealand)[38]
- Genus Miofulica (Anversian Black Sand Middle Miocene of Antwerp, Belgium)
- Genus Miorallus (Middle Miocene of Sansan, France -? Late Miocene of Rudabánya, Hungary)
- Genus Youngornis (Shanwang Middle Miocene of Linqu, China)
- Rallidae gen. et sp. indet. (Sajóvölgyi Middle Miocene of Mátraszõlõs, Hungary)[39]
- Rallidae gen. et sp. indet. (Middle Miocene of Grive-Saint-Alban, France)[40]
- Rallidae gen. et sp. indet. (Late Miocene of Lemoyne Quarry, USA)
- Rallidae gen. et sp. indet. UMMP V55013-55014; UMMP V55012/V45750/V45746 (Rexroad Late Pliocene of Saw Rock Canyon, USA)
- Rallidae gen. et sp. indet. UMMP V29080 (Rexroad Late Pliocene of Fox Canyon, USA)
- Genus Creccoides (Blanco Late Pliocene/Early Pleistocene of Crosby County, USA)
- Rallidae gen. et sp. indet. (Bermuda, West Atlantic)
- Rallidae gen. et sp. indet. (formerly Fulica podagrica) (Late Pleistocene of Barbados)[41]
- Genus Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.[43]
Doubtfully placed here
These taxa may or may not have been rails:
- Genus Ludiortyx (Late Eocene) – includes "Tringa" hoffmanni, "Palaeortyx" blanchardi, "P." hoffmanni
- Genus Telecrex (Irdin Manha Late Eocene of Chimney Butte, China)
- Genus Amitabha(Bridger middle Eocene of Forbidden City, USA) – phasianid?
- Genus Palaeocrex (Early Oligocene of Trigonias Quarry, USA)
- Genus Rupelrallus (Early Oligocene of Germany)
- Neornithes incerta sedis (Late Oligocene of Riversleigh, Australia)[44]
- Genus Euryonotus (Pleistocene of Argentina)
The presumed scolopacid wader Limosa gypsorum (Montmartre Late Eocene of France) is sometimes considered a rail and then placed in the genus Montirallus.[45]
See also
References
- ^ .
- ^ a b Horsfall & Robinson (2003): pp. 206–207
- ISBN 9781784270933– via Google Books.
- ^ "Rail | bird". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 2021-06-10. Retrieved 2021-06-03.
- ^ a b Horsfall & Robinson (2003): p. 208
- ^ a b Horsfall & Robinson (2003): p. 210
- ^ .
- ^ Horsfall & Robinson (2003): p. 209
- ^ a b c Kirchman (2012)
- ^ McNab & Ellis (2006)
- ^ a b McNab (1994)
- ^ Trewick (1997)
- ^ a b c McNab and Ellis 2006
- ^ Livezey 2003
- ^ Slikas et al. (2002)
- ^ a b c d McNab 2002
- ^ a b Kirchman 2012
- ^ Perret and Blondel 1993
- ^ Granjon and Cheylan 1989
- ^ Horsfall & Robinson (2003): p. 207
- PMID 23530197.
- ^ Platt, John R. (May 2018). "Memorializing the Wake Island Rail: An Extinction Caused by War". TheRevelator.org. Archived from the original on 2019-06-02. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
- ISBN 9780226771427.
- ^ a b Horsfall & Robinson (2003): pp. 209–210
- ^ a b Horsfall & Robinson (2003): p. 211
- ^ BLI (2007)
- ^ Steadman (2006)
- ^ "GUAM: BROWN TREE SNAKE RESPONSIBLE FOR EXTINCTION OF 5 SPECIES". AP Archive. February 1996. Archived from the original on 2018-07-29. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
- ^ "Guam Rail Gallirallus owstoni". San Diego Zoo.org. Archived from the original on 2018-07-29. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
- ^ Hurrell, Shaun. "Is this Guam bird coming back from extinction in the wild?". BirdLife International.org. Archived from the original on 2018-07-29. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
- ^ Rafinesque, Constantine Samuel (1815). Analyse de la nature ou, Tableau de l'univers et des corps organisés (in French). Palermo: Self-published. p. 70. Archived from the original on 2018-08-19. Retrieved 2018-02-21.
- hdl:2246/830.
- ^ Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (August 2022). "Flufftails, finfoots, rails, trumpeters, cranes, limpkin". IOC World Bird List Version 12.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Archivedfrom the original on 14 March 2023. Retrieved 14 November 2022.
- ^ Mlíkovský (2002)
- ^ OLSON, STORRS L. (1977). "A SYNOPSIS OF THE FOSSIL RALLIDAE" (PDF). Smithsonian Libraries - Smithsonian Research Online. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-07-29. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
- ^ A small species of rail: Hugueney et al. (2003)
- ^ Dozens of mostly broken isolated skull and limb bones of a rail or crake the size of a slaty-breasted or small buff-banded rail: Worthy et al. (2007)
- MNZ S.40957) and 2 femora (MNZ S.42658, S.42785) of a rail or crake the size of a large buff-banded rail: Worthy et al. (2007)
- ^ Several limb bones of a smallish rail: Gál et al. (1998–99)
- ^ Partial hand of a common moorhen-sized rail: Ballmann (1969)
- hdl:10088/8374.
- .
- ^ "Pleistorallus flemingi; holotype". Collections Online. Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Archived from the original on 24 October 2012. Retrieved 18 July 2010.
- ^ Specimen QM F40203. A left carpometacarpus piece of a bird about the size of Lewin's rail. Probably from a rail, but it is too damaged to determine its affiliations more precisely: Boles (2005)
- ^ Olson (1985), Mlíkovský (2002)
Further reading
- Ballmann, Peter (1969). "Les Oiseaux miocènes de la Grive-Saint-Alban (Isère) [The Miocene birds of Grive-Saint-Alban (Isère)]". .
- BirdLife International (BLI) (2007): Wake Island Rail BirdLife Species Factsheet. Retrieved 2007-07-04.
- Boles, Walter E (2005). "A New Flightless Gallinule (Aves: Rallidae: Gallinula) from the Oligo-Miocene of Riversleigh, Northwestern Queensland, Australia. (2005)" (PDF). Records of the Australian Museum. 57 (2): 179–190. .
- Dinkins, Walter (2014): The Rail Bird Hunter's Bible. A History of Rail Bird Hunting in the USA. Virtualbookworm.com Publishing.
- Gál, Erika; Hír, János; Kessler, Eugén & Kókay, József (1998–99): Középsõ-miocén õsmaradványok, a Mátraszõlõs, Rákóczi-kápolna alatti útbevágásból. I. A Mátraszõlõs 1. lelõhely [Middle Miocene fossils from the sections at the Rákóczi chapel at Mátraszőlős. Locality Mátraszõlõs I.]. Folia Historico Naturalia Musei Matraensis 23: 33–78. [Hungarian with English abstract] PDF fulltext
- García-R, J.C.; Gibb, G.C.; Trewick, S.A. (2014). "Deep global evolutionary radiation in birds: Diversification and trait evolution in the cosmopolitan bird family Rallidae". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 81: 96–108. PMID 25255711.
- Granjon, L., and G. Cheylan (1989): The fate of black rats (rattus-rattus, l) introduced on an island, as revealed by radio-tracking. Comptes Rendus De L Académie des Sciences, Série III Sciences de la Vie 309:571–575.
- Horsfall, Joseph A. & Robinson, Robert (2003): Rails. In: Perrins, Christopher (ed.): Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds. Firefly Books.
- Hugueney, Marguerite; Berthet, Didier; Bodergat, Anne-Marie; Escuillié, François; Mourer-Chauviré, Cécile; Wattinne, Aurélia (2003). "La limite Oligocène-Miocène en Limagne: changements fauniques chez les mammifères, oiseaux et ostracodes des différents niveaux de Billy-Créchy (Allier, France) [The Oligocene-Miocene boundary in Limagne: faunal changes in the mammals, birds and ostracods from the different levels of Billy-Créchy (Allier, France)] [French with English abstract]". .
- Kirchman, J. J. (2012). "Speciation of flightless rails on islands: A DNA-based phylogeny of the typical rails of the Pacific". The Auk. 129 (1): 56–69. S2CID 85940913.
- Livezey, B. (2003): Evolution of Flightlessness in Rails (Gruiformes: Rallidae): Phylogenetic, Ecomorphological, and Ontogenetic Perspectives. Ornithological Monographs No. 53. (Book)
- McNab, B.K. (1994). "Energy conservation and the evolution of flightlessness in birds". S2CID 86511951.
- McNab, B.K. (2002). "Minimizing energy expenditure facilitates vertebrate persistence on oceanic islands". Ecology Letters. 5 (5): 693–704. .
- McNab, B.K.; Ellis, H.I. (2006). "Flightless rails endemic to islands have lower energy expenditures and clutch sizes than flighted rails on islands and continents". Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology. 145 (3): 295–311. PMID 16632395.
- Mlíkovský, Jirí (2002): Cenozoic Birds of the World, Part 1: Europe. Ninox Press, Prague.
- Perret, P.; Blondel, J. (1993). "Experimental-evidence of the territorial defense hypothesis in insular blue tits". Experientia. 49: 94–98. S2CID 23665106.
- Olson, Storrs L. (1985): Section X.D.2.b. Scolopacidae. In: Farner, D.S.; King, J.R. & Parkes, Kenneth C. (eds.): Avian Biology 8: 174–175. Academic Press, New York.
- Slikas, B.; .
- Steadman, David William (2006): Extinction and Biogeography of Tropical Pacific Birds. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-77142-3
- Trewick, S. A. (1997). "Flightlessness and phylogeny amongst endemic rails (Aves:Rallidae) of the New Zealand region". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 352 (1352): 429–446. PMID 9163823. (Full text)
- S2CID 85230857.
- Guide, Joe. Rail Bird Hunter's Bible. N.p.: Virtualbookworm.com Publishing, Incorporated, 2014. ISBN 9781621374527
- Taylor, Barry., van Perlo, Ber. Rails: A Guide to Rails, Crakes, Gallinules and Coots of the World. United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2010. ISBN 9781408135372
- Australia's Amazing Wildlife. 2009, (Original Publisher: Cornell University). United Kingdom: Bay Books, 1985. ISBN 9780858358300