#132: Rails in the Reeds: Life in the Shadows, with Dr. Auriel Fournier

And I would like to back up and maybe set the picture a little bit more about the life history of rails.

Mm-hmm.

Now realizing that there is a pretty broad spectrum of rails.

Like, you mentioned coots are pretty visible.

They'll walk across golf courses and public parks-

Right

... and that sort of thing.

Whereas, like, a black rail, probably not gonna see that.

When they're in their marsh habitat, what are they eating? Are they active day or night? You know, how long do they live? Like, some of those sort of basic parameters-

Yeah

...

I guess, for their life history.

It varies, and it can even vary within the same species across their range.

So a good example of this is black rail.

I work on black rail down on the Gulf Coast, and I've also been able to work with them in Colorado.

And they're vocalizing at different times of the day across that geography, and we've been working with some folks on the Atlantic Coast to show that e- that is even a little bit different.

Like, in Colorado, they're largely vocalizing in the middle of the night, which doesn't seem to be the case in other parts of their geography.

And we don't really have a great answer for why that is, but it is very interesting.

My very soon to graduate PhD student, Lauren Monopoly, also often calls them picky generalists because, like, if you look across their whole range, they use such a wide variety of things.

But when you're in a particular state, they're very picky about what they want in that state.

What they pick in Colorado is very particular, but it's very different than what they pick in Texas, for instance.

Their vocalization can vary a whole lot.

Their migratory life history I think is also really interesting.

So, like, black rail, clapper rail, and king rail all have individuals that are migratory and individuals that aren't.

And then some of the other rails, like, if you look at, like, coots or sora, Virginia rail, yellow rail, those are all, all just migratory.