Rallus longirostris
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The mangrove rail (Rallus longirostris) is a species of bird in subfamily Rallinae of family Rallidae, the rails, gallinules, and coots. It is found in Central and South America. The mangrove rail was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1781 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen obtained in French Guiana. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-colored plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Rallus longirostris in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The genus Rallus had been erected in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. The specific epithet longirostris combines the Latin longus meaning "long" and -rostris meaning "-billed".
The mangrove rail was formerly considered to be conspecific with what are now the Aztec rail (R. tenuirostris), Ridgway's rail... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Caroni Swamp | 🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago | |
| 2 | Palo Verde National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fortaleza | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Vitória | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Rio de Janeiro | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Mangrove Rail sighting in Caroni Swamp on a given day, based on 24 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 116th most-seen of the 169 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March–April and December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Mangrove Rail in Caroni Swamp on a given day, against under 5% in January–February and May–November, the lowest months. Those are among Caroni Swamp's driest months, with about 45 mm of rain a month against 130 mm in August.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Mangrove Rail sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 2 parks where we can rate Mangrove Rail sightings, Caroni Swamp has the highest daily chance: under 5%. Next come Palo Verde National Park (Costa Rica, under 5%).
Same family: Rallidae
The closest relatives of the Mangrove Rail that you can see in Caroni Swamp (family Rallidae, Rails, Gallinules, and Coots) are Common Moorhen (about 30%), Gray-cowled Wood-Rail (about 30%) and American Purple Gallinule (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Mangrove Rail is recorded against all the birds logged in Caroni Swamp (24 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
