Virginia rail
These birds remain fairly common despite continuing loss of habitat, but are secretive by nature and more often heard than seen.Virginia rails have the highest ratio of leg-muscle to flight-muscle of all birds (25% - 15% of body weight respectively).Juveniles are blackish brown on upperparts with rufous on the edge of feathers and brownish bill and legs.Its breeding habitat is marshes from Nova Scotia to Southern British Columbia, California and North Carolina, and in Central America.The Virginia rail probes with its bill in mud or shallow water, also picking up food by sight.It mainly eat insects and other aquatic invertebrates, like beetles, flies, dragonflies, crayfish, snails and earthworms.[6] This birds lays a clutch of 4 to 13 white or buff eggs with sparse gray or brown spotting.
Northern VirginiaWashington, D.C.Virginia Railway ExpressList of railroads in VirginiaConservation statusLeast ConcernIUCN 3.1Scientific classificationEukaryotaAnimaliaChordataGruiformesRallidaeRallusBinomial nameVieillotloss of habitatEcuadorian railR. semiplumbeusR. antarcticusmigrateUnited StatesCentral AmericaNova ScotiaBritish ColumbiaCaliforniaNorth Carolinamonogamousclutchpair bondIUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesHauber, Mark E.Internet Bird CollectionWikidataWikispeciesAvibaseBirdLifeEURINGiNaturalistNatureServeNeotropicalObservation.orgOpen Tree of LifePaleobiology DatabaseXeno-canto