Yellow Rail Coturnicops voveborocensis Taylor Scientific Classification: Kingdom: Animalia Phylum:Chordata Class: Aves Order: Gruiformes Family: Rallidae Genius: Coturnicops Species: voveborocensis

Natural History

The yellow rail is a vertebrate which means that they have a backbone. My bird goes in the phylum Chordata because it has a backbone. All of the animals in the world are multi-cellular organisms and my bird belongs in that too because it is an animal. My animal is a prey because it gets eaten by a predator.

My animal is a warm-blooded animal because it keeps a constant body temperature. My animal is an carnivore which means that it only eats meats and nothing else. My bird’s habitat is mostly wetlands because it likes to be protected by predators that try to get them.

My animal is a threatened species which means that they are a step away from being an endangered species.

When yellow rails migrate they usually migrate through Illinois in April and in early May. In Illinois because of the destruction of the yellow rail’s wetlands they haven’t been seen for over 10 years.till it all came back or until they found another wetland in Illinois. But now they have came back and now they’re common their in the migrating season.

Habitat

Yellow rails mostly prefer to live in the wetlands because it gives them protection from the people outside and the predators that kill them for their meat. But they can also be found in other wetlands for example wet boggy swale areas or in a flooded plains.They usually make their nest out of mud and weeds so that the mud will make a perfect wall for them. And another reason that they live in the areas that they live in is because it also has the stuff for them to eat for their diet.

Present Status

The yellow rail is a Species of Concern in the State of Maine.

Physical Description

The length of the yellow rail is 15-19 cm long. It has a short bulgy bill. Adults’ general color is a buff or yellowish color. The yellow rails have a long streak of black on their backs. Their feathers have a white margin giving it a scaled look. On the middle and of the bottom at the bird’s wing it has a white streak on the wing. So that when you are going to go bird watching or something you will know that it is a yellow rail flying in the sky. When they lay eggs they usually lay at least 15 eggs. That is a lot of eggs for a bird.

Diet and Feeding Habits

Yellow rails eats mostly insects and stuff like that,such as snails, beetles, grasshoppers, aquatic bugs, dragonfly nymphs, damselfly nymphs, spiders, crayfish, slugs, leeches,and tadpoles. The yellow rail doesn’t really eat fish because of where they live but now they might be eating fish because of their habitat is being destroyed by humans so they have been forced to move and try new things. But if this was not happening they would be eating mostly insects because of where they live because marshy areas have a lot of insects.

Causes of Endangerment

The reason that the yellow rail is threatened is because humans destroy the other animals' habitat and force it to try new things and to take over other habitat. Two is because we kill them and we use their feathers to make hats with, so that brings them down. The other reason is because we destroy the things. And another thing that really harms my bird a long time ago is a pesticide called DDT. But not only DDT; there are other pestisides that harm animals, too.

Personal Essay

What is the value of the wilderness to modern society? Well if we don’t have a wilderness then we don’t have animals or trees and plants that make medicines for us so that we can cure diseases. And we won’t be able to breathe if we don’t have wilderness. Or in shorter terms the wilderness means everything to us. If the wilderness goes,we go and then we are extinct: (And that means that the species that where living is not living anymore it is completely wiped out)the human race will be extinct and the only thing that might be living then will be only insects and maybe some animals but probaby not.


Biblography

1.  museum. April 15,2003. Http://museum.gov.ns/ca.(April15,2003.)