The Bogotá rail (''Rallus semiplumbeus'') is a Vulnerable species of bird in subfamily Rallinae of family Rallidae, the rails, gallinules, and coots. It is endemic to

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

.HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 6. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v6_Dec21.zip retrieved August 7, 2022 The bird is a typical medium-sized rail with a plump body that is laterally compressed (“skinny as a rail”), a short tail and an elongated bill.

Taxonomy and systematics

The Bogotá rail was first described in 1856 by the American ornithologist Philip Sclater, based on a specimen sent to him by the French collectors Jules and

Édouard Verreaux Jean Baptiste Édouard Verreaux (16 September 1810 – 14 March 1868) was a French naturalist, taxidermist, collector, and dealer. Botanist and ornithologist Jules Verreaux was his older brother. Career In 1830, Verreaux travelled to Sout ...

. The generic name ''Rallus'' is thought to derive from the name for these birds in

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

(''Rale'') or

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

(''ralle''). The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''semiplumbeus'' comes from the Latin ''plumbum'' (lead), suggesting that the bird is somewhat the color of lead. The Bogotá rail has two known subspecies: * ''R. s. semiplumbeus'' (

Sclater Philip Lutley Sclater (4 November 1829 – 27 June 1913) was an English lawyer and zoologist. In zoology, he was an expert ornithologist, and identified the main zoogeographic regions of the world. He was Secretary of the Zoological Society o ...

, 1856) * ''R. s. peruvianus'' (

Taczanowski Taczanowski (Polish feminine: Taczanowska; plural: Taczanowscy) is the surname of a Polish szlachta (nobility) family from Poznań bearing the Jastrzębiec coat of arms and the motto: ''Plus penser que dire''. They took their name from th ...

, 1886) ''R. s. peruvianus'' is known from a single specimen thought to have been collected in Peru; it is now considered to be extinct. Some authors have suggested that it represents a distinct species.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 24 July 2022. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved July 24, 2022 The taxonomic relationships among the Rallidae species are complex and not fully resolved, but phylogenetic analysis has determined that this species is one of eight members that form a

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

(a monophyletic group). It is most closely related to the

plain-flanked rail The plain-flanked rail (''Rallus wetmorei'') is an Endangered species of bird in subfamily Rallinae of family Rallidae, the rails, gallinules, and coots. It is endemic to Venezuela.HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of ...

(''R. wetmorei''),

mangrove rail 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.HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of ...

(''R. longirostris''),

Virginia rail The Virginia rail (''Rallus limicola'') is a small waterbird, of the family Rallidae. These birds remain fairly common despite continuing loss of habitat, but are secretive by nature and more often heard than seen. They are also considered a ga ...

(''R. limicola''), king rail (''R. elegans''), and

austral rail The austral rail (''Rallus antarcticus'') is a Vulnerable species of bird in subfamily Rallinae of family Rallidae, the rails, gallinules, and coots. It is found in Argentina and Chile.HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds ...

(''R. antarcticus'') of the New World ( Nearctic and Neotropical realms ), and the

African rail The African rail (''Rallus caerulescens'') is a small wetland bird of the rail family that is found in eastern and southern Africa. Taxonomy The African rail was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in ...

(''R. caerulescens''), water rail (''R. aquaticus''), and

brown-cheeked rail The brown-cheeked rail or eastern water rail (''Rallus indicus'') is a species of bird in the family Rallidae. It breeds in northern Mongolia, eastern Siberia, northeast China, Korea and northern Japan, and winters in southeast Asia.Taylor & van ...

(''R. indicus'') of the

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

and

Afrotropical The Afrotropical realm is one of Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Africa south of the Sahara Desert, the majority of the Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, southern Iran and extreme southwestern Pakistan, and the island ...

realms.

Description

The Bogotá rail is a typical member of the genus '' Rallus'', with a long and slightly decurved bill, a plump body, and a short tail. It is long. Its bill is dull red, shading to dusky black on the culmen and tip. Its eyes are red with a black pupil and its legs are dull coral red. The sexes are alike. Adults have a sepia brown crown and nape and plumbeous gray face, breast, and belly. Their back, tertials, secondaries, and the upper side of the tail are dull brown, with black streaks on the back. Their primaries are black with chestnut fringing, and a rufous patch is usually evident on the wing

coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which, as the name implies, cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are sm ...

. The rear parts of their flanks are black with fine white vertical barring and their undertail coverts are white. There is a small patch of white on the throat just below the bill. Juveniles are similar to adults with the addition of sooty tips on the breast feathers and a whitish throat.Taylor, B. and C. J. Sharpe (2020). Bogota Rail (''Rallus semiplumbeus''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.bograi1.01 retrieved November 23, 2022

Distribution and habitat

The Bogotá rail is a scarce species endemic to the departments of Cundinamarca and Boyacá in the Eastern Andes of Colombia. It inhabits wetlands, ponds, and wet meadows on montane slopes and in the

páramo Páramo () can refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems located in the Andes Mountain Range, South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". A narrower ...

, at elevations ranging from meters. The species is typically found in dense reedbeds dominated by the sedge ''

Schoenoplectus californicus ''Schoeneoplectus californicus'' is a species of sedge known by the common names California bulrush, southern bulrush and giant bulrush. It is also sometimes called "tule", but the closely related ''Schoenoplectus acutus'' is the species most oft ...

'', but also including emergent vegetation such as '' Juncus effusus'', ''

Polygonum punctatum ''Persicaria punctata'' ( syn. ''Polygonum punctatum'') is a species of flowering plant in the knotweed family known by the common names dotted smartweed and dotted knotweed. ''Persicaria punctata'' is native to the Americas, where it can be fo ...

'', ''

Rumex obtusifolius ''Rumex obtusifolius'', commonly known as bitter dock, broad-leaved dock, bluntleaf dock, dock leaf, dockens or butter dock, is a perennial plant in the family Polygonaceae. It is native to Europe, but is found on all temperate continents. It i ...

'', ''

Bidens laevis ''Bidens laevis'' is a species of flowering plant in the Asteraceae, daisy family known by the common names larger bur-marigold and smooth beggarticks. It is native to South America, Mexico, and the southern and eastern United States. It grows in ...

'', ''

Hydrocotyle ranunculoides ''Hydrocotyle ranunculoides'', known commonly as floating pennywort, or floating marshpennywort, is an aquatic plant in the family Apiaceae. It is native to North and South America. Origin and invasiveness Water pennywort is an aquatic plant, ...

'', and '' Carex acutata''. Reedbeds bordered by dwarf ''

Chusquea ''Chusquea'' is a genus of evergreen bamboos in the grass family. Most of them are native to mountain habitats in Latin America, from Mexico to southern Chile and Argentina. They are sometimes referred to as South American mountain bamboos. Unl ...

'' bamboo or other dense vegetation seem to be favored. A study of Bogotá rails in the wetland of

La Conejera La Conejera ( es, Humedal La Conejera) is a wetland, part of the Wetlands of Bogotá, located in the locality Suba, Bogotá, Colombia. The wetland, in the Juan Amarillo River basin on the Bogotá savanna covers an area of .Moreno et al., s.a., p.2 ...

found that they spent on average 84% of their time within this type of habitat. The birds were also observed in wet grasslands, although it seems that they mainly ventured into this more open (and predator-friendly) habitat while moving between patches of wetland. They were only occasionally seen on floating vegetation.

Behavior

Movement

The Bogotá rail's movements, if any, have not been recorded.

Feeding

The Bogotá rail forages mostly at dawn and dusk. It seeks prey at the edges of reedbeds and marshes, in flooded grassy areas, in shallow water with floating plants, and among waterlogged dead vegetation. Its diet is principally aquatic invertebrates including insect larvae, and also includes worms, molluscs, amphibians, and plant material.

Breeding

The Bogotá rail's breeding period is not well defined but appears to span from July to September. It is thought to be monogamous and territorial. Its nest and eggs are not known, but it is known that both parents care for the young.

Vocalization

The Bogotá rail calls only in daytime. Its vocalizations include "squeaks, grunts, and whistling and piping notes" that increase in volume and fairly abruptly end. When distubed it also makes a "brief, rapid 'titititirr'."

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

originally assessed the Bogotá rail as Threatened and then in 1994 as Endangered. In 2021 it was reclassified as Vulnerable. It has a very small range and its estimated population of 3700 mature individuals is believed to be decreasing. Its wetland habitat is under severe human pressure. "Drainage has caused massive habitat loss on the Ubaté-Bogotá plateau, and few suitably vegetated marshes remain because of pollution and siltation." It is locally common and appears "able to survive in small patches of remaining habitat".

References

External links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr1BeL5zslg Bogotá rail

Bogotá rail- pictures
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bogota rail Bogotá rail Birds of the Colombian Andes Endemic birds of Colombia Bogotá rail Bogotá rail Taxonomy articles created by Polbot