English            -             Blackish Rail

Portuguese    -             Saracura-sanã

Latin                -              Pardirallus nigricans

I photographed the Blackish Rail when I was coming back from a day excursion to a location called Carmo and Sumidouro which is around 90km north of where I was staying at REGUA (Reserva Ecológica de Guapiaçu) We were driving along this dirt road when we came to a bend, to the side of the road there was a small piece of swampy ground. It seemed to be part of someones back yard because there was a house just above this piece of land. Anyway as we passed, someone noticed the Blackish Rail looking for food in the water. We stopped the van. I was expecting it to run into the vegetation to the side of the swamy ground because they are easily startled. We got out of the van and started taking photos and the Blackish Rail  couldn’t really careless if we were there. We were able to get relatively close it before it started to become a bit suspicious of us. Was really happy to have finally photographed a rail because I have found them hard to photograph in the past.

* The Blackish Rail is a small rail with a length of 29 cm and weighs about 217 gr.

* Their calls are a very fast, metallic “tii’d’dit”.

* It is found in north-eastern Brazil to south-east Brazil and west to northern Argentina and eastern Paraguay. 

* A second disjunct population is found in western Brazil, Bolivia, and central Peru.

* They inhabit marshes, vegetation-choked waterways, flooded rice fields, tall damp grass, and swamps.

* Little is known about their feeding habits. It is assumed it feed on invertebrates and insects.

* The female lays 2-3 eggs and are incubated for 18–21 days. The chicks can leave the nest as soon as they hatch. 

*  The Blackish Rail is difficult bird to assess its conservation status, because it is secretive and difficult to observe, It does however have a large range and is thought not to be globally threatened. Therefore it is classified as a species ”of least concerned” on the IUCN red list.