Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Gruiformes > Rallidae > Rallus > Rallus caerulescens

Rallus caerulescens (African Rail)

Wikipedia Abstract

The African rail (Rallus caerulescens) is a small wetland bird of the rail family. Its breeding habitat is marshes and reedbeds across eastern and southern Africa from Ethiopia to South Africa. Many birds are permanent residents, but some undertake seasonal movements in response to the availability of wetland. These birds probe with their bill in mud or shallow water, also picking up food by sight. They mainly eat insects, crabs and other small aquatic animals.
View Wikipedia Record: Rallus caerulescens

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
3
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
21
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 7.43661
EDGE Score: 2.13258
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  160 grams
Birth Weight [2]  14.8 grams
Female Weight [4]  146 grams
Male Weight [4]  180 grams
Weight Dimorphism [4]  23.3 %
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Carnivore (Vertebrates), Piscivore, Granivore, Herbivore
Diet - Ectothermic [3]  20 %
Diet - Fish [3]  10 %
Diet - Invertibrates [3]  30 %
Diet - Plants [3]  20 %
Diet - Scavenger [3]  10 %
Diet - Seeds [3]  10 %
Forages - Understory [3]  20 %
Forages - Ground [3]  40 %
Forages - Water Surface [3]  40 %
Clutch Size [6]  4
Incubation [5]  20 days

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Cape Floristic Region South Africa No
Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa Kenya, Mozambique, Somalia, Tanzania No
Eastern Afromontane Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Uganda, Yemen, Zimbabwe No
Guinean Forests of West Africa Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Togo No
Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland No

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 2Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605
♦ 3Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 4Taylor, PB 1998. Rails: A guide to the rails, crakes, gallinules and coots of the world. Yale University Press. New Haven, Connecticut
♦ 5del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 6Jetz W, Sekercioglu CH, Böhning-Gaese K (2008) The Worldwide Variation in Avian Clutch Size across Species and Space PLoS Biol 6(12): e303. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060303
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0