Clapper Rail - Rallus crepitans

Back east we are stay at my cousin Rich's beach home in East Haven, along a road that parallels the beach and borders a rich salt marsh fed by the tidal flow from Carolina Creek. On a walk in early August we had some expected sightings. Along the muddy shore I saw a large dark gray rail chick, which was quickly joined by a sibling.

When Patti arrived she quickly spotted an adult Clapper Rail, now Rallus crepitans. I quickly caught a Fiddler Crab (there must be 100,000 of them along this creek!), which it promptly swallowed. 

The precocial chicks were left to forage for themselves along the exposed mud, sometimes venturing into the shallow water, while the adult kept a watchful eye.

Based on DNA studies and disjunct ranges of the subspecies, the AOU has split the Clapper Rail into 3 separate species. Ours on the West Coast and in Nevada and Arizona has been christened Ridgeway's Rail, Rallus obsoletus. East Coast and Gulf Coast, and Central American birds keep the name Clapper Rail, Rallus crepitans. The 3rd rail emerging from the split is the Mangrove Rail, Rallus longirostris, seen in coastal salt marshes of South America. 

The AOU also opted to split the King Rail, a similar large rail found in fresh water marshes, has also been split, with the species to the south now known as the Aztec Rail.