Elusive bird:
Marsh-dwelling black rails are more often heard than seen, and they aren’t heard very often. William & Mary’s Center for Conservation Biology led a decades-long effort that culminated in the eastern black rail’s listing as “threatened” on the Endangered Species List.
Photo by David Seibel
Photo - of -
by Joseph McClain
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December 15, 2020
A bird that since John James Audubon’s time has scurried under the radar of all but the most attentive ornithologists, conservationists and naturalists has received protection from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The bird is
Laterallus jamaicensis, the eastern black rail. William & Mary’s Center for Conservation Biology led a 20-year effort to rally regulators and the birding community to get behind the bird, an effort that paid off in early November when Fish and Wildlife placed the black rail on the list of threatened animals under the Endangered Species Act.