CalvinFold
Well-known member
I live in California and one the places I go for animal photography in Oakland, along with the bird watchers who go there, make a HUGE deal about the clapper rails there.
What confuses me is: Wikipedia lists the Clapper Rail (Rallus crepitans) as a species suffering habitat loss, but stable and not threatened. The park signs are quite old, but this is how they list them.
But given the big deal made by the bird watchers here, I did some digging, and the Ridgeway's Rail (Rallus obsoletus, aka, California Clapper Rail) appears to have been more recently split-off and is an endangered species, and it's largest habitat is right here around my home (San Francisco Bay Area).
So when I finally had someone point out one of these rails hiding along the shoreline, I snapped the photo below. Sorry for the quality, I horribly under-exposed it.
Was hoping someone here had the know-how to tell which rail (Ridgeway's Rail or a common Clapper Rail) I have here. I suspect a Ridgeway's based on my reading, but what do I know?
What confuses me is: Wikipedia lists the Clapper Rail (Rallus crepitans) as a species suffering habitat loss, but stable and not threatened. The park signs are quite old, but this is how they list them.
But given the big deal made by the bird watchers here, I did some digging, and the Ridgeway's Rail (Rallus obsoletus, aka, California Clapper Rail) appears to have been more recently split-off and is an endangered species, and it's largest habitat is right here around my home (San Francisco Bay Area).
So when I finally had someone point out one of these rails hiding along the shoreline, I snapped the photo below. Sorry for the quality, I horribly under-exposed it.
Was hoping someone here had the know-how to tell which rail (Ridgeway's Rail or a common Clapper Rail) I have here. I suspect a Ridgeway's based on my reading, but what do I know?
Attachments
Last edited: