2. Description of the Yellow Rail:
• small bird
• they are about 13-18 centimeters tall
• looks more like a small mammal
• has yellow strips
• upperparts of the birds body is dark brown
• throat is white
• buff cheat
• flanks (the sides of the bird between the wing and the legs or hips.)
• bellies are barred black and white
• head is buff with a dark brown cap
• eye patches around there eyes
• bill is short and is yellow
• wings are a dark color with large
white patches that become visible
when they take flight

3. Where do they live?
In autumn the yellow rail lives in…
• Hay fields
• Grain fields
• Wet meadows
• Interior and coastal marshlands
In breeding season…
• Fresh and blackish water marshes
• Higher (drier) margins
They also live in…
• Fens
• Boggy swales

5. What does the yellow rail eat?
The yellow rail eats…
• Snails
• Other water animals
• Seeds
• Reeds
• Sedges
• Earth worms
What are their Predators?
• Humans

6. What does the Yellow Rail Prefer?
The yellow rail is the second smallest rail bird in north
America. Like other rails the yellow rail prefers to run or hide
instead of flying and moves beneath the vegitation. This bird
is so silent you could be inches away from them and never
catch a glimpse of them. They sneak through the grass like
phantoms.

8. Breeding Season!
 male call is 5 notes and goes something like this, click-
click, click-click-click
 Which is easily copied by tapping to stones
together. Hunters have used the method of tapping
to stones together, to trap the male yellow rails.
They know that birds respond to such imitations. Do
to these trapping and hunting the yellow rail is
widely distributed all over United States and
Canada.
 During breeding season the yellow rails inhabitants fresh
and blackish water marshes, but they prefer
higher, drier, margins.
 They nest on the ground.
 Breeding season is late April-May
 They lay 4-10 eggs, when born chicks are black and have a
yellow beak
http://birdcinema.com/view_video.php?viewkey=472509627f7f4c2a4478

9. Why are yellow rails threatened?
• Yellow rails are threatened because they are very easy to
hunt/trap. Hunters/Trappers get these little birds for meat
and other stuff. Two stones tapping to gather brings in the
birds because of the sound.
• Habitat loss do to development and draining wetlands
• Change of vegetation in the shallow wetlands were the yellow
rail inhabitants
• Breeding range has decreased

10. • http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/en/Business/Species/2ColumnSubP
age/MNR_SAR_YLLW_RL_EN.html
• http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/literatr/wetbird/yera/yer
a.htm
Video references:
• http://www.arkive.org/yellow-rail/coturnicops-
noveboracensis/#image-G118795.html