Bird Gallery Index

Clapper Rail image © Alan Murphy

Family: (Rallidae) Rails, Gallinules, and Coots

Preferred Habitat: Salt marshes.

Seasonal Occurrence: Resident; uncommon all seasons.

Notes: Very similar to the King Rail, but the color is usually duller. Hybridizes with King Rail. Secretive in nature, the Clapper Rail is more often heard than seen. Most easily spotted at dawn and dusk when it may come out to mud flats to feed. The call is a distinctive, sharp kek, kek, kek, kek, kek which speeds up and slows down, unlike the more even call of the King Rail.
- Susan Billetdeaux