Clapper Rail - Rallus crepitans

The Clapper Rail - Rallus crepitans - is a chicken-sized water bird that rarely flies. It is greyish brown with a pale chestnut breast and has a noticeable white patch under the tail, its bill curves slightly downwards. They will eat crustaceans, aquatic insects, and small fish which they search for while walking, sometimes probing with their long bills in shallow water or mud. Their twig nest is built low in mangrove roots, and 3-7 purple-spotted buff eggs are laid. It lives and breeds along the Atlantic coasts of the eastern U.S., Gulf of Mexico, eastern Mexico, some Caribbean islands, and south through eastern Central America, as well at several inland locales. This one was seen on a visit to the small wildlife area behind the Playa Costa Verde hotel in Guardalavaca, Cuba.

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