From Opus

Photo by Peter Bono
Elliott Island Marsh, Maryland, USA, June 1975

Laterallus jamaicensis

[edit] Identification

10cm

• Black head and breast
• Rusty nape
• Dark back and wing coverts with small white spots
• Dark flanks barred black and white
• Short dark bill
  

Sexes similar

[edit] Distribution

Poorly known, perhaps more numerous than they seem. Currently thought to be very local from U.S. to central Argentina and Chile.

[edit] Taxonomy

The Junin Rail is sometimes lumped within L. jamaicensis.

[edit] Subspecies^[1]

Ranges are disjunct.

• L. j. coturniculus - Coastal central California south to northern Baja California
• L. j. jamaicensis - Eastern US to Belize and Cuba; winters to Central America and West Indies
• L. j. murivagans - Arid littoral of Peru
• L. j. salinasi - Central Chile (Atacama to Malleco) and extreme west Argentina

[edit] Habitat

Coastal salt marshes and some freshwater marshes.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Diet

The diet includes small invertebrates and seeds of some marsh plants.

[edit] Breeding

Nests are hidden in clumps of vegetation on marshes and grassland, slightly elevated from the ground. Both sexes appear to incubate the eggs.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist.
2. Wikipedia

• List of references

[edit] External Links