King Rail (Rallus elegans)

County List:

Rule:

Mixed Forested/Nonforested or Nonforested Landscapes

1st alternative:
      (Lake or Pond or River)
   adjacent to: 
      Marsh 2 

2nd alternative:
      (Lake or Pond or River)
   adjacent to:
      Marsh 2
   adjacent to: 
      Lowland Brush 

3rd alternative:
      Marsh 2

4th alternative:
      Marsh 2 
   adjacent to:
      (Field/Pasture or Sedge Meadow or Lowland Brush)

Habitat List:

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Literature:

King Rails use a wide variety of habitats from freshwater, brackish, and coastal salt marshes to shrub swamps and upland fields near marshes. Within the Great Lakes region, lake sedge and cattail are often mentioned as preferred King Rail habitat. During surveys in 1986, a year when rising Great Lakes water levels were severely eroding Michigan's coastal wetlands, King Rails were associated with permanent marsh habitats along upland-wetland edges. Of the 17 sites where their habitat was described, 13 were dominated by tussock-forming sedges or a sedge-grass mixture; all but 4 sites were interspersed with willow or dogwood. King Rails nest in shallow water (0-25 cm). Water depths at foraging sites are typically less than 10 cm).

Land-use practices in southeastern Michigan have fragmented and, in some cases, eliminated coastal wetland communities. At times of rising lake levels, migrating birds may arrive to find even the remaining fragments inundated.

Habitat: Breeding: Coastal and inland brackish to freshwater marshes with abundant vegetation (favors areas with sedges, bulrushes, and cattails), roadside ditches, and tidal rivers. Not known to breed in salt marshes. Wintering: Coastal brackish, salt, and freshwater marshes.

Special Habitat Requirements: Adequate vegetation for nesting and protection with fairly constant water levels throughout the breeding season (no deep flooding or drying).

Habitat: Fresh and brackish marshes, rice fields, swamps. Sometimes salt marshes in winter. Will use a variety of habitats with shallow fresh or brackish water and dense cover. Important plants include cattails, bulrushes, spartina, and others. May be in brush swamps with many willows or in flooded rice fields.

Diet: Mostly insects and crustaceans. Diet includes many aquatic insects, especially beetles. Eats many crayfish and crabs and sometimes many small fish. Also eats snails, clams, grasshoppers, frogs, spiders, and seeds of aquatic plants.

Nest: Site is in a clump of grass or sedges, usually about a foot above water or land. Nest is a solid platform of grass, sedges, other marsh plants, with a canopy woven over the top and a ramp leading down from the entrance. Additional simpler nest platforms may be built nearby.