Rails are a very elusive species! They live in marshy areas and stay hidden among the vegetation. Most often they are reported as "heard" but not seen. I was extremely lucky this week to see and get pics of several rail species in the Cibola NWR. I parked along side a small marsh that bordered one of the roads. The vehicle works as a blind so the birds mostly ignore you as long as you don't move and stay in your rig. These pics are the result of sitting for 4 hours over 2 days and scanning the vegetation line! The first pic is of a Ridgeway's Rail.
The second is a Virginia Rail. It has much shorter legs and some coloring differences.
Another challenging species to see is the Sora. It is the smallest of the three species.
To see a complete list of today's birds and pics of other species, click here:
Rails and other birds list
Excellent work and patience. Those photos are so great and show the variations between the species.
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