Birds of the Upper Cumberland Region: Species Accounts

Virginia Rail (Rallus limicola)

Abundance: Rare (8 records in 7 counties, 3 in Kentucky and 4 in Tennessee, each involving single individuals).

Status: Transient during spring (2 records, one of which merges with one of the Summer Resident records) and fall (6 records, one of which is probably a continuation of the other Summer Resident record) and probable Summer Resident (2 records, each of which merges with either a spring or fall record).  If winter residence proves to take place, then this rail would qualify as a Permanent Resident of the Region, a status already accorded it in Tennessee by Nicholson (1997) but not in Kentucky by Palmer-Ball (1996); photographs (see links below).

Information on Records:

21 October 1966 (1) Center, Metcalfe County, Kentucky (James Hiser fide Russell Starr; Starr 1967), captured unharmed by farmer during mowing of a "semi-swampy" (Starr 1967: 38) field.

21 October 1978 (1) Catoosa Wildlife Management Area, Cumberland County, Tennessee (Tom Laughlin, Rick Phillips; Bierly 1979a).

21/22 October 1983 (1 specimen of adult [JBE notes], tower-killed) WGRB-TV tower, near Columbia, Adair County, Kentucky (Jackie B. Elmore, Sr.; Stamm 1984a), tower casualty.

23 April-13 June 2003 (1) Pumphouse Pond, Pulaski County, Kentucky (Roseanna M. Denton, m. ob.; Palmer-Ball and McNeeley 2003a, 2003b), a spring and summer record.

1 & 20 July/25 September 2004 (1) Heritage Marsh, White County, Tennessee (Stephen J. Stedman, Douglas A. Downs; Casteel 2004d and 2005a), a summer and fall record.

5 October 2004 (1 adult) National Fish Hatchery, Celina, Clay County, Tennessee (Terry M. Campbell photo and unpubl. data), photo (5 October 2004, Terry M. Campbell; Casteel 2005a).

6 September 2005 (1 immature; specimen) Hickory Avenue near 4th St., Cookeville, Putnam County, Tennessee (Ivan L. Cordrey unpubl. data), probable road or wire casualty; photo [of specimen, now housed in the bird collection at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga] (9 September 2005, Stephen J. Stedman).

4 May 2007 (1 or 2) Pumphrey Farm, Pulaski County, Kentucky (Roseanna M. Denton, C. Gay Hodges unpubl. data).

Regional Extreme Dates:

    Fall: 6 September 2005 (1 casualty; Putnam County, Tennessee; Ivan L. Cordrey)-21/22 October 1983 (1 casualty; Adair County, Kentucky; Jackie B. Elmore, Sr.; Stamm 1984a; Elmore and Palmer-Ball 1991).

    Spring: 23 April 2003 (1; Pulaski County, Kentucky; Roseanna M. Denton; Palmer-Ball and McNeeley 2003a)-13 June 2003 (1; Pulaski County, Kentucky; Roseanna M. Denton; Palmer-Ball and McNeeley 2003b), the late record may represent a breeding event.

YardWatch Results 2003 and 2004: No registrations.

Breeding: Possible (Recent).  No conclusive evidence is available, but circumstantial evidence suggests the possibility of breeding at two sites within the Region.  The record from Pulaski County, Kentucky, clearly falls across most of the breeding season of this inconspicuous species. The record from White County, Tennessee, while falling later than most nesting records in Tennessee, is also much earlier than most records of fall migrants.

Habitat: Wetlands of many types and sizes.  Pumphouse Pond in Pulaski County, Kentucky, is a smallish wetland (c. 2-3 hectares) dominated by cattails and possessing quite a bit of open water, while the Heritage Marsh in White County, Tennessee, is a very large (c. 100 hectares) wetland dominated by smartweed and cutgrass and containing very little open water.

Remarks: The paucity of migration records of this rail probably derives from a lack of effort to find it rather than from its absence during the migration seasons.  Although no winter season records of this rail are known from the Region, it should eventually prove to be present during winter at least occasionally.

    A record of a Virginia Rail purportedly occurring in Putnam County, Tennessee (Alsop undated [1980]; Stedman 1993), is erroneous, the undoubted result of a mapping error.  The Cumberland County, Tennessee, record of Virginia Rail (Bierly 1979a) is not reflected in Alsop's map despite the fact that the Cumberland County record antedates the publication of Alsop (undated [1980]).  Although the observers of the Cumberland County Virginia Rail--Tom Laughlin and Rick Phillips--also assisted in the preparation of Alsop (undated [1980]), it is still probable that their sighting was attributed, inadvertently, to Putnam County, rather than to Cumberland County, in the process of preparing the maps for that work.

Counties with Observations (boldfaced):

To see a map (Figure 1) displaying the data in the table above, click on the boldfaced word in this sentence.

Literature Cited: