Virginia Rail

Rallus limicola

Built sideways for squeezing through cattails. Forehead feathers are reinforced for pushing through dense reeds.

Population: ~240,000 mature individuals (stable)
Habitat: Shallow freshwater and brackish inland marshes, bogs, fens, and swamps with dense stands of cattails and rushes (typically 40-70% emergent vegetation coverage mixed with open water/mudflats), standing water usually under 6 inches deep with a muddy bottom; occurs from sea level to ~3,660 m elevation; occasionally uses salt marshes in winter
Fun fact: The Virginia Rail has an unusually high ratio of leg muscle to flight muscle for a bird (roughly 25% vs 15% of body weight), reflecting its preference for running/skulking through dense marsh vegetation over flying to escape danger.
Range: Breeds across southern Canada (Nova Scotia to southern British Columbia) south through the northern and western United States to California and North Carolina; winters from the southern/coastal US south through Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean to northern South America (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru); vagrants recorded in Bermuda and Greenland
Diet: Primarily aquatic invertebrates — beetles, flies, dragonflies, crayfish, snails, slugs, spiders, and earthworms — plus small fish, frogs, and occasionally small snakes; supplements with seeds and plant material in fall/winter
Size: 0.235 m
Wingspan: 0.35 m
Lifespan: 5 years

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