Talk:Water rail

Transport query

"the female may carry the chicks or eggs one by one to another location" - is that under the wing or in the bill? I imagine eggs in the bill and the chicks under the wing. Shyamal (talk) 08:20, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

Length of time in nest

This year the nest of a pair of Water Rails was featured on BBC Television in the program Springwatch. I learned from the program that the Water Rail chicks typical leave the nest between 24h and 48h after hatching. I think it might be useful to add this information to the text of the article.

The article could cite Flegg and Glue 1973 p. 74 (currently ref 34) who wrote "the young appear to have left the nest within two days". I cannot see the section on the Water Rail in the Google preview of Taylor & van Perlo but on page 23 of their introduction they define "precocial" as leaving the nest in the "first day or two" while "semi-precocial" is used to describe birds that leave within 3 days.

The current text is confusing:

The eggs are incubated for 19–22 days to hatching,[6] with at least 87% success,[34] and the precocial, downy young fledge in another 20–30 days.[6] Food is brought to the nest by the other adult and passed to the sitting parent who feeds the chicks, although they also find some of their own food after about five days. After fledging, the young birds fend for themselves. They can fly when aged 7–9 weeks.[15]

What does "fledge" mean here? Does it mean to leave the nest or does it mean to fly? The birds leave the nest within 2 days and fly when aged 7-9 weeks. At present I don't have access to a copy of Taylor & van Perlo to check this myself. Aa77zz (talk) 11:32, 12 June 2013 (UTC)

It would make sense if the meaning of "fledge" is that they can feed themselves and are independent of the adults. Aa77zz (talk) 11:38, 12 June 2013 (UTC)

I've edited the article to add the 2 days in the nest and to remove the word "fledge" which I find confusing. Please could somebody check that I haven't messed up with the cites. Aa77zz (talk) 12:18, 12 June 2013 (UTC)

Is the Water Rail a carnivore?

This article states that the Water Rail is an omnivore, however, it further states that its diet is mainly animals. The article Carnivore states "A carnivore /ˈkɑrnɪvɔər/ meaning 'meat eater' (Latin, caro meaning 'meat' or 'flesh' and vorare meaning 'to devour') is an organism that derives its energy and nutrient requirements from a diet consisting mainly or exclusively of animal tissue...". Does this not make the Water Rail a carnivore?__DrChrissy (talk) 01:07, 11 November 2013 (UTC)

The term carnivore tends to be applied to mammals more and usually involves such adaptations as claws and teeth. Even the birds of prey are rarely referred to as carnivores and they could also differ in whether they feed on carrion or actively prey. I have edited the lead to indicate that their major prey are actually invertebrates, insect larvae and worms, not what usually comes to mind as "meat". Shyamal (talk) 05:51, 11 November 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification and the excellent edit. It had never ocurred to me before that we tend not to use "carnivores" for birds, even birds of prey. Seems rather an inconsistent use of the word, but probably not something we can address on WP.__DrChrissy (talk) 17:46, 11 November 2013 (UTC)

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New range map?

This range map [1] by Jimfbleak was removed because it was supposedly outdated, after some species was split off. Perhaps time to update the map? Or state it is inaccurate on Commons? I've been checking bird FAs to see if they needed maps, and this was one of the few. FunkMonk (talk) 14:55, 25 February 2017 (UTC)

FunkMonk, I was hoping that indicus could be cropped out, but that won't work. I'm not planning to redraw the map from scratch, but I wondered about adding a line separating aquaticus from indicus. That would have the advantage that, suitably cropped and labelled, it could be used in both articles. What do you think? Jimfbleak - talk to me? 07:18, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

I've seen other range maps used in articles for more than one species. Where exactly is indicus? FunkMonk (talk) 09:37, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

FunkMonk All the yellow and blue blobs further east than the longitude of easternmost India/Bangladesh are indicus, but the easternmost green blob, in central Asia, is aquaticus, which prevents just cropping indicus out. Jimfbleak - talk to me? 13:59, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

Perhaps give it a unique colour? And by the way, seems the article needs updating, only the intro states indicus has been split off, yet it is mentioned under parasites as a subspecies. FunkMonk (talk) 14:00, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

FunkMonk, unless you know an automatic way, recolouring is as time-consuming as starting from scratch. I'd noticed the ssp problem, I'll sort that Jimfbleak - talk to me? 14:50, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

There is a colour-replacement tool in Photoshop, and the paint bucket tool should be able to do it too. If you don't have that, I can take a stab... FunkMonk (talk) 14:52, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

FunkMonk, I certainly don't have anything that will do that, so I'll be grateful if you could do the deed, thanks Jimfbleak - talk to me? 07:09, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

I'll try after work. But seems it may be a bit complicated if the other bird is also to be represented by two colours? Seems to be indicated by this unused map:[2] I think I would be able to copy an empty map on top of the parts where the water rail doesn't exist. FunkMonk (talk) 09:33, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

FunkMonk, I've added that map to brown-cheeked rail anyway, it's already on the French, Dutch and Swedish articles. Yes, indicus appears to be entirely migratory, so needs two colours. Your suggestion seems worth a shot, i simply don't have the software or skills to do much more than colouring-in Jimfbleak - talk to me? 13:19, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

I've now copied the part of the blank map that covers indicus' range over the colour, and cropped the image. FunkMonk (talk) 17:14, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

That looks pretty good! I've added a legend. you've probably noticed that I've updated the text to reflect the split, so the article should be up-to-date now Jimfbleak - talk to me? 07:18, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

All good! Now all species FAs have maps, which is nice... FunkMonk (talk) 09:09, 28 February 2017 (UTC)

File:Rallus aquaticus - Ralaqu.jpg to appear as POTD soon

Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Rallus aquaticus - Ralaqu.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on May 23, 2017. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2017-05-24. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page. — Chris Woodrich (talk) 01:36, 13 May 2017 (UTC)

Picture of the day

The water rail (Rallus aquaticus) is a bird of the rail family which breeds in well-vegetated wetlands across Europe, Asia and North Africa. Northern and eastern populations are migratory, but this species is a permanent resident in the warmer parts of its breeding range. The adult is 23–28 cm (9–11 in) long, and breeds in reed beds and other marshy sites with tall, dense vegetation. These rails are vulnerable to flooding or freezing conditions, loss of habitat and predation by mammals and large birds. The introduced American mink has exterminated some island populations, but overall the species' large range and numbers mean that it is not considered to be threatened.Photograph: Pierre Dalous

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