Water Rail
Rallus aquaticus
Rails, Gallinules, and Coots (Rallidae) · Gruiformes · Rails, Gallinules, and Allies
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How to identify Water Rail
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Often mixed up with
In quizzes, players most often confuse Water Rail with these birds—either this species was picked by mistake, or the other way around.
| Species | Mix-ups |
|---|---|
| Common Moorhen Gallinula chloropus | 77 |
| Spotted Crake Porzana porzana | 76 |
| Corncrake Crex crex | 31 |
| Baillon's Crake Zapornia pusilla | 22 |
| Eurasian Nightjar Caprimulgus europaeus | 16 |
Family
Rails (avian family Rallidae) are a large, cosmopolitan family of small- to medium-sized terrestrial or semi-amphibious birds. The family exhibits considerable diversity in its forms, and includes such ubiquitous species as the crakes, coots, and gallinules; other rail species are extremely rare or endangered. Many are associated with wetland habitats, some being semi-aquatic like waterfowl (such as the coot), but many more are wading birds or shorebirds.
Order
The Gruiformes are an order containing a considerable number of living and extinct bird families, with a widespread geographical diversity. Gruiform means 'crane form'. Traditionally, a number of wading and terrestrial bird families that did not seem to belong to any other order were classified together as Gruiformes.