Rallidae: Rails, Gallinules, and Coots
The rails are a large group of chickenlike birds, most of which live in marshes or associated habitats such as meadows, swamps, and lakes. A few family members, including the coots and some gallinules, spend much of their time swimming in open water, generally behaving like ducks, but the vast majority of rail species are habitually furtive and rarely leave the safe concealment of dense vegetation. Consequently, most rails are little-known and the infrequency of sightings makes each one memorable.
Identification
Most rails are heard more often than seen, so voice is crucial to identification. Purely visual observations often amount to fleeting glimpses that make inconclusive impressions—a blur of stripes and bars sliding through a prism of vertical lines and shadows.
Voice playback greatly increases the odds of observing or identifying a rail (with playback the identification is usually known in advance). Use of playback is essential to lay eyes on most of the secretive species, but some marshes provide surprisingly good viewing conditions around dawn and dusk when rails of many species customarily emerge from the vegetation.
Taxonomy
The internal groupings within the Rallidae are currently understood as three large subfamilies, two of which are further divided into a total of six tribes, as follows:
Rallinae: Typical rails (40 to 51 species, plus 9 extinct)
Gallinulinae: Gallinules, coots, and wood-rails (38 to 42 species, plus 4 extinct)
Pardirallini: Wood-rails (16 to 17 species)
Gallinulini: Gallinules and coots (22 to 25 species, plus 4 extinct)
Porphyrioninae: Swamphens and crakes (52 to 57 species, plus 9 or 10 extinct)
Porphyrionini: Swamphens (10 species, plus 3 extinct)
Himantorthini: Waterhens (10 species)
Zapornini: Old World crakes (14 to 16 species, plus 5 or 6 extinct)
Laterallini: New World crakes (18 to 21 species, plus 1 extinct)
The total number of rail species is thus around 130 to 150, plus 22 or 23 that have gone extinct in modern times—with most of the extinctions being flightless or near-flightless species that were confined to remote islands, then succumbed to predators brought by human settlers.
Species-level distinctions are generally settled across most of the rail family, with the exception of several clusters that appear to be in the early stages of speciation. The prime example is the Clapper-and-King Rail complex, which was traditionally regarded as two species and is currently classified as five, but could conceivably be as many as thirteen or so.
More difficult than species divisions among the rails is their placement into subfamilies. This is confusing because genetic analyses have proven that their appearances are unreliable indicators of shared ancestry. Each of the three major evolutionary branches includes some species that outwardly resemble species in other subfamilies more than they resemble their closer relatives.
Rouget’s Rail (Rougetius rougetii)
Chestnut-headed Crake (Anurolimnas castaneiceps)
Water Rail (Rallus aquaticus)
Brown-cheeked Rail (Rallus indicus)
African Rail (Rallus caerulescens)
Virginia Rail (Rallus limicola)
Bogotá Rail (Rallus semiplumbeus)
Austral Rail (Rallus antarcticus)
Plain-flanked Rail (Rallus wetmorei)
Ecuadorian Rail (Rallus aequatorialis)
Ridgway’s Rail (Rallus obsoletus)
“Ridgway’s Rail” (R. o. obsoletus)
“Light-footed Rail” (R. o. levipes)
“Yuma Rail” (R. o. yumanensis)
“Belding’s Rail” (R. o. beldingi)
Mangrove Rail (Rallus longirostris)
“Fonseca Rail” (R. l. berryorum)
“Cyperet’s Rail” (R. l. cypereti)
“Mangrove Rail” (R. l. longirostris)
Clapper Rail (Rallus crepitans)
“Atlantic Clapper Rail” (R. c. crepitans)
“Gulf Coast Clapper Rail” (R. c. saturatus)
“Caribbean Clapper Rail” (R. c. caribaeus)
“Yucatán Clapper Rail” (R. c. pallidus)
King Rail (Rallus elegans)
“Northern King Rail” (R. e. elegans)
“Cuban King Rail” (Rallus ramsdeni)
Aztec Rail (Rallus tenuirostris)
Madagascan Rail (Biensis madagascariensis)
Red Rail (Aphanapteryx bonasia) †
Rodrigues Rail (Erythromachus leguati) †
White-throated Rail (Dryolimnas cuvieri)
Réunion Rail (Dryolimnas augusti) †
Corn Crake (Crex crex)
African Crake (Crex egregia)
Snoring Rail (Lewinia plateni)
Slaty-breasted Rail (Lewinia striatus)
Luzon Rail (Lewinia mirifica)
Lewin’s Rail (Lewinia pectoralis)
Auckland Islands Rail (Lewinia muelleri)
Blue-faced Rail (Gymnocrex rosenbergii)
Talaud Rail (Gymnocrex talaudensis)
Bare-eyed Rail (Gymnocrex plumbeiventris)
Invisible Rail (Gallirallus wallacii)
Hawkins’s Rail (Gallirallus hawkinsi) †
Calayan Rail (Gallirallus calayanensis)
Chestnut Rail (Gallirallus castaneoventris)
Weka (Gallirallus australis)
New Caledonian Rail (Gallirallus lafresnayanus)
Chatham Islands Rail (Gallirallus modestus) †
Okinawa Rail (Gallirallus okinawae)
Barred Rail (Gallirallus torquatus)
Dieffenbach’s Rail (Gallirallus dieffenbachii) †
Pink-legged Rail (Gallirallus insignis)
Guam Rail (Gallirallus owstoni)
Woodford’s Rail (Gallirallus woodfordi)
“Bougainville Rail” (G. w. tertius)
“Santa Isabel Rail” (G. w. immaculatus)
“Guadalcanal Rail” (G. w. woodfordi)
Roviana Rail (Gallirallus rovianae)
Bar-winged Rail (Gallirallus poecilopterus) †
Buff-banded Rail (Gallirallus philippensis)
Lord Howe Woodhen (Gallirallus sylvestris)
Wake Island Rail (Gallirallus wakensis) †
Tahiti Rail (Gallirallus pacificus) †
Spotted Rail (Pardirallus maculatus)
Blackish Rail (Pardirallus nigricans)
Plumbeous Rail (Pardirallus sanguinolentus)
Ash-throated Crake (Mustelirallus albicollis)
Zapata Rail (Mustelirallus cerverai)
Colombian Crake (Mustelirallus colombianus)
Paint-billed Crake (Mustelirallus erythrops)
Uniform Crake (Amaurolimnas concolor)
Rufous-necked Wood-Rail (Aramides axillaris)
Little Wood-Rail (Aramides mangle)
Brown Wood-Rail (Aramides wolfi)
Giant Wood-Rail (Aramides ypecaha)
Russet-naped Wood-Rail (Aramides albiventris)
Gray-necked Wood-Rail (Aramides cajaneus)
“Gray-cowled Wood-Rail” (A. c. cajaneus)
“Gray-backed Wood-Rail” (A. c. avicenniae)
Red-winged Wood-Rail (Aramides calopterus)
Slaty-breasted Wood-Rail (Aramides saracura)
Makira Woodhen (Pareudiastes silvestris)
Samoan Woodhen (Pareudiastes pacificus) †
Black-tailed Nativehen (Tribonyx ventralis)
Hodgen’s Nativehen (Tribonyx hodgenorum) †
Tasmanian Nativehen (Tribonyx mortierii)
Spot-flanked Gallinule (Porphyriops melanops)
Sora (Porzana carolina)
Spotted Crake (Porzana porzana)
Australian Crake (Porzana fluminea)
Lesser Moorhen (Paragallinula angulata)
Dusky Moorhen (Gallinula tenebrosa)
Eurasian Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus)
Tristan Moorhen (Gallinula nesiotis) †
Common Gallinule (Gallinula galeata)
“American Gallinule” (G. g. galeata)
“Hawaiian Gallinule” (G. g. sandvicensis)
“Altiplano Gallinule” (G. g. garmani)
Gough Moorhen (Gallinula comeri)
Red-fronted Coot (Fulica rufifrons)
Horned Coot (Fulica cornuta)
Giant Coot (Fulica gigantea)
Red-gartered Coot (Fulica armillata)
Eurasian Coot (Fulica atra)
Mascarene Coot (Fulica newtonii) †
Red-knobbed Coot (Fulica cristata)
Andean Coot (Fulica ardesiaca)
White-winged Coot (Fulica leucoptera)
American Coot (Fulica americana)
“American Coot” (F. a. americana)
“Caribbean Coot” (F. a. caribaea)
St. Helena Rail (Atlantisia podarces) †
Allen’s Gallinule (Porphyrio alleni)
Purple Gallinule (Porphyrio martinica)
Azure Gallinule (Porphyrio flavirostris)
Western Swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio)
Black-backed Swamphen (Porphyrio indicus)
African Swamphen (Porphyrio madagascariensis)
North Island Takahe (Porphyrio mantelli) †
South Island Takahe (Porphyrio hochstetteri)
Australasian Swamphen (Porphyrio melanotus)
Gray-headed Swamphen (Porphyrio poliocephalus)
Philippine Swamphen (Porphyrio pulverulentus)
White Swamphen (Porphyrio albus) †
Nkulengu Rail (Himantornis haematopus)
New Guinea Flightless Rail (Megacrex inepta)
Striped Crake (Aenigmatolimnas marginalis)
White-browed Crake (Poliolimnas cinereus)
Watercock (Gallicrex cinerea)
Isabelline Bush-hen (Amaurornis isabellina)
White-breasted Waterhen (Amaurornis phoenicurus)
Plain Bush-hen (Amaurornis olivacea)
Talaud Bush-hen (Amaurornis magnirostris)
Pale-vented Bush-hen (Amaurornis moluccana)
Slaty-legged Crake (Rallina eurizonoides)
Andaman Crake (Rallina canningi)
Red-legged Crake (Rallina fasciata)
Red-necked Crake (Rallina tricolor)
Black Crake (Limnocorax flavirostra)
Ruddy-breasted Crake (Limnobaenus fuscus)
Band-bellied Crake (Limnobaenus paykullii)
Brown Crake (Zapornia akool)
Little Crake (Zapornia parva)
St. Helena Crake (Zapornia astrictocarpus) †
Baillon’s Crake (Zapornia pusilla)
“Western Baillon’s Crake” (Z. p. intermedia)
“Eastern Baillon’s Crake” (Z. p. pusilla)
“Australasian Baillon’s Crake” (Z. p. palustris)
Laysan Rail (Zapornia palmeri) †
Sakalava Rail (Zapornia olivieri)
Black-tailed Crake (Zapornia bicolor)
Hawaiian Rail (Zapornia sandwichensis) †
“Rusty Hawaiian Rail” (Z. s. sandwichensis) †
“Dusky Hawaiian Rail” (Z. s. millsi) †
Henderson Island Crake (Zapornia atra)
Spotless Crake (Zapornia tabuensis)
Kosrae Crake (Zapornia monasa) †
Tahiti Crake (Zapornia nigra) †
Ocellated Crake (Micropygia schomburgkii)
Russet-crowned Crake (Rufirallus viridis)
Swinhoe’s Rail (Coturnicops exquisitus)
Yellow Rail (Coturnicops noveboracensis)
Ascension Crake (Mundia elpenor) †
White-throated Crake (Limnocrex albigularis)
“White-throated Crake” (L. a. albigularis)
“Gray-faced Crake” (L. a. inereiceps)
Speckled Rail (Creciscus notatus)
Black Rail (Creciscus jamaicensis)
“Northern Black Rail” (C. j. jamaicensis)
“Southern Black Rail” (C. j. salinasi)
“Junín Black Rail” (C. j. tuerosi)
Dot-winged Crake (Creciscus spiloptera)
Galápagos Rail (Creciscus spilonota)
Inaccessible Island Rail (Creciscus rogersi)
Yellow-breasted Crake (Hapalocrex flaviventer)
Gray-breasted Crake (Laterallus exilis)
Black-banded Crake (Laterallus fasciatus)
Ruddy Crake (Laterallus ruber)
Rusty-flanked Crake (Laterallus levraudi)
Rufous-sided Crake (Laterallus melanophaius)
Rufous-faced Crake (Laterallus xenopterus)
Red-and-white Crake (Laterallus leucopyrrhus)
References
Boyd, J.H., 2019. Taxonomy in Flux: Gruae I: Opisthocomiformes & Gruiformes. http://jboyd.net/Taxo/List7.html#gruiformes. (Posted August 6, 2019. Accessed August 24, 2020.)
Hume, J.P. 2017. Extinct Birds (Second Edition). Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, London.
Ripley, S.D. 1977. Rails of the World: A Monograph of the Family Rallidae. David R. Godine, Publisher, Boston.
Roberson, D. 2015. Bird Families of the World: Rails & Allies, Rallidae. http://creagrus.home.montereybay.com/rails.html. (Posted July 31, 2015. Accessed August 24, 2020.)
Taylor, B., and B. van Perlo. 1998. Rails: A Guide to the Rails, Crakes, Gallinules, and Coots of the World. Yale University Press.