In the case of
yellow rail, a "grail bird" for watchers like me, there's some debate about the species being rare or just rarely seen.
Whether the wetlands the
yellow rail depends on, the grasslands the sage grouse inhabits, the Arctic breeding grounds of the buff-breasted sandpiper, or the ocean health essential to petrels: a thriving environment is key to endangered birds' survival.
Birds that could lose all of their current range by 2080 include the American avocet, brown rosy-finch, brown-headed nuthatch, chestnut-collared longspur, eared grebe, northern gannet, northern saw-whet owl, trumpeter swan, white-headed woodpecker, and
yellow rail.
We entered the encounter history of each
yellow rail for the period 28 November 2009-13 April 2010 into Program MARK to estimate population sizes with the POPAN model (White and Burnham, 1999; Cooch and White, 2010).
Hunting the coast north of Plum Island with former refuge manager George Gavutis, we've even found the rare
yellow rail, which we'd never want to shoot by mistake.
The southwest part of the bay is a globally important breeding and migration site for several species, including the endangered
yellow rail and red knot.
I put my hand on the
yellow rail. Right on top of the hand of the young woman.
When we reach the former mill buildings, our pathway bends left then right and left again as we walk beside a
yellow rail.
The
yellow rail is the source of an unusual night noise that can be heard around wetlands.
They heard their last new species, a
yellow rail, one of the rarest birds in New Jersey, about 9 p.m.