Birds in This Story
Black Rail
Latin: Laterallus jamaicensis
The low chirp of Black Rails was once a familiar sound in wetlands across the state, but now the sound brings relief to surveyors monitoring the few remaining sanctuaries where they can be found. It means this small, secretive marsh bird is still hanging on, despite growing pressures.
Black Rails spend their entire lives slinking through tall grasses and reeds. They have always been difficult to detect because of their habits and habitat, but populations have plummeted recently.
Black Rails are now classified as a threatened species by the state and federal governments, with only a tiny population remaining in North Carolina. That's why we’re launching a new project at our Pine Island Sanctuary on Currituck Sound, to provide more habitat and hope for this declining bird.
“Pine Island has an impoundment that is perfect for what we’re trying to do,” Executive Director Curtis Smalling said. “With the right water and soil manipulations, we should be able to create the perfect habitat for this specialized bird.”
Historically, Black Rails have inhabited diverse areas of the state, from river valley seeps and bogs in the mountains to higher elevation marshes along the coast. But many of those western strongholds were drained for agriculture 100 years ago, leaving us with a primarily coastal population.
At about five inches tall, these tiny birds mainly occupy a narrow window of elevation in the upper zone of marsh habitats, in places where the water is shallow enough for their stubby legs. Sea level rise and increases in sunny day flooding events have been their greatest challenge in recent years, leaving nests and chicks vulnerable to flooding. That along with fire suppression and habitat destruction have continued to decimate populations in the last decade or more.
Recent initiatives coordinated by partner organizations like the Atlantic Coast Joint Venture and the Eastern Black Rail Working Group in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida have started to implement targeted management projects to bring Black Rails out of tidal systems vulnerable to flooding and into managed impoundments or marsh migration corridors that get the birds up in elevation and out of harm's way.
This is what we’re hoping to do at Pine Island—provide a higher elevation impoundment that will be managed specially for them. We’ll utilize precise water level manipulations and vegetation control to create the perfect conditions for young Black Rail pairs looking to establish a breeding territory.
Luring Black Rails
While their historic range is broad, Black Rails actually have extremely specific habitat requirements when it comes to plant structure and soil conditions. Their sparrow-like size and ability to maneuver in tunnels of thick marsh grass gives them an edge in dense areas of sedge and grass with no trees. They like a mix of wet and dry soil with slopes and no more than 2 inches of saturation.
To achieve this, we dug a holding pond in a corner of the impoundment which delivers water to a solar powered pump feeding three different areas of the field. This will allow us to create a variety of saturation levels attractive to Black Rails. All of which will be controlled by a moisture sensor to make sure areas don’t get too wet or too dry.
“We’ll turn it on in early spring to start getting the area ready for the migration season,” Smalling said. “We’re hoping to recruit first-year breeding pairs that will return to the area year-after-year.”
The team at Pine Island will use speakers to play calls during the migration season to attract birds passing by. “Playback recordings will be one of the biggest tools we have to lure in birds, other than making the habitat itself extremely attractive,” Senior Coordinator of Habitat Management Sara Marschhauser said. “We will also be implementing standardized monitoring of the vegetation, playback surveys for rails, and documenting other species using the impoundment.”
Once here, the hope is that Pine Island will become a safe place for Black Rails to raise the next generation protected from sea level rise, flooding, and development. This type of targeted management is extremely important for the long-term survival of Black Rails in North Carolina and on the east coast. Audubon NC is thankful for funding from the North American Wetland Conservation Act (coordinated by the NC Coastal Land Trust) and the Top Family Foundation.
