Yellow Rail

Coturnicops noveboracensis
NWT SARC Assessment
Not Applicable
NWT List of Species at Risk
Not Applicable
COSEWIC Assessment
Special Concern
Federal Species at Risk Act list
Special Concern
NWT General Status Rank
Sensitive

The Yellow Rail is a small bird with a short tail, short bill and buff-coloured plumage. The wide dark stripes on its back are crossed by white bars. The white wing patch, which is visible in flight, helps distinguish Yellow Rails from other similar marsh birds.

Yellow Rails are rarely seen. They expertly hide in the dense marsh vegetation, aided by their camouflaged plumage. The unique call of the Yellow Rail is a rapid series of five monotonous and metallic ticks (or clicks) sounding like two pebbles or coins tapped together: tick-tick, tick-tick-tick. Calling can mainly be heard during the hours from dusk to dawn, and the sound can carry for up to a kilometre.

Weight: Males, 41-68 g (1.4 to 2.4 oz). Length: 15 to 19 cm (5.9 to 7.5 in).

Report Yellow Rail sightings to ebird.org 

Yellow Rails breed in Canada and the northern United States and winter on the East and Gulf coasts of the United States. 

Recent research in the NWT suggests both the range and the population size of Yellow Rail are much larger than previously thought. Acoustic recording units (ARUs) detected a large population of Yellow Rails in Edéhzhíe Protected Area, extending the known range of the species about 150 km further north. 

Range map information

Yellow Rails likely arrive in the NWT in the latter part of May and nesting occurs in June and possibly July. They nest in marshes dominated by sedges and grasses, wet meadows and shrubby wetlands. Nesting areas have little or no standing water (generally 0 to 12 cm) and the ground is saturated with water throughout the summer. 

Females lay seven to ten eggs on nests built on or just above the ground that are concealed with a canopy of dead vegetation. The diet of Yellow Rails is mainly invertebrates and seeds.

There is evidence of some population decline since the early 2000s. The reasons for the decline are not well understood, but they could be related to the impacts of multiple threats or cumulative effects affecting Yellow Rails on their breeding grounds, wintering grounds, and during migration.

Potential threats in the Northwest Territories include habitat loss and degradation from human activities, human activities resulting in declining food sources and increased numbers of predators, and breeding habitat degradation from climate change.

COSEWIC assessed Yellow Rail as Special Concern in 1999, 2001, 2009 and 2023. Yellow Rail was listed as a species of Special Concern under the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA) in 2003. A national management plan for Yellow Rail is available on the federal Species at Risk Public Registry.

Yellow Rails and their nests are protected under the federal Migratory Birds Convention Act.

Area
Dehcho North Slave / Tłı̨chǫ South Slave