Rallus crepitans
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The clapper rail (Rallus crepitans) is a member of the rail family, Rallidae. The taxonomy for this species is confusing and still being determined. It is a large brown rail that is resident in wetlands along the Atlantic coasts of the eastern United States, eastern Mexico and some Caribbean islands. This species was formerly considered to be conspecific with the mangrove rail.
The clapper rail was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other rails in the genus Rallus and coined the binomial name Rallus crepitans. Gmelin based his description on those by Thomas Pennant and John Latham. The type locality is Long Island, New York. 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 crepitans is Latin meaning "breaking wind" or "resounding".
The clapper rail was formerly treated as a subspecies of the mangrove rail (Rallus longirostris). The decision to treat the clapper rail as a separate species was based on the results of a molecular phylogenetic... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ciénaga de Zapata | 🇨🇺 Cuba | |
| 2 | Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 3 | Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Celestún Biosphere Reserve | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 5 | Arrecifes de Cozumel National Park | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 6 | Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 7 | Everglades National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York City | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Boston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Miami | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | National Zoological Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Cameron Park Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Clapper Rail sighting in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on a given day, based on 763 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 100th most-seen of the 279 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Clapper Rail in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on a given day, against under 5% in March and April, the lowest months.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Clapper Rail sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 7
Of the 7 parks where we can rate Clapper Rail sightings, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge ranks 3rd at about 10%. The best odds are in Ciénaga de Zapata (Cuba, about 30%) and Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve (Mexico, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Clapper Rail is recorded against all the birds logged in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (763 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.
