Family: Rallidae, Rails, Gallinules, Coots view all from this family

Description 15-19" (38-48 cm). Similar to the Clapper Rail of salt marshes but head, neck, shoulders, and underparts rusty. Flanks barred with black and white. Virginia Rail is smaller, with gray patch on face.

Habitat Freshwater marshes and roadside ditches; wanders to salt marshes in fall and winter.

Nesting 8-11 buff eggs, spotted with brown, in a deep bowl of grass, often with surrounding marsh grass pulled down and woven into a dome.

Range Breeds from North Dakota east to Massachusetts, and south to Florida and Texas. Winters regularly along Gulf Coast, in Mississippi Valley, and rarely northward to southern New England.

Voice   A harsh, clattering kek-kek-kek-kek-kek, almost identical to that of Clapper Rail.

Discussion This large eastern rail is common in the larger freshwater marshes of the interior. Although difficult to see, it has a loud call that often reveals its presence. It occasionally hybridizes with the similar Clapper Rail where freshwater and salt marshes occur together. They may eventually be found to be two forms of a single species.