Rallus longirostris
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
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 Fortaleza on a given day, based on 10 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 98th most-seen of the 129 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Mangrove Rail in Fortaleza on a given day, against under 5% in October to August, the lowest months. That is one of Fortaleza's driest months, with almost no rain against 240 mm in April.
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 3 cities where we can rate Mangrove Rail sightings, Fortaleza has the highest daily chance: under 5%. Next come Vitória (Brazil, under 5%) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil, under 5%).
Same family: Rallidae
The closest relatives of the Mangrove Rail that you can see in Fortaleza (family Rallidae, Rails, Gallinules, and Coots) are Common Moorhen (about 30%), Gray-cowled Wood-Rail (about 20%) 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 Fortaleza (10 verified sightings), 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.
