Secretive rails

Every now and again we are lucky enough  to chance upon a buff-banded rail making an excursion into our garden. Recently I was outside early in the morning to pick a few ripe peaches for my breakfast. I love the sweet juicy flavour of gold fleshed peaches first thing in the morning. I eat a few while I pick them, and carry in the survivors with juice covered hands. Miske watches me attentively waiting for her share. I reluctantly give Miske a few morsels of the delectable flesh and any squishy fallen fruit. She loves to eat the summer fruits just as much as we humans do. One of the reasons we need to net our fruit is to keep Miske out, otherwise she would demolish any fruit within her reach.

 

Back to the rail. As I reached the fruit trees that morning, there in the shadows was a rail, quietly going about its business. Feeding in the grasses, pecking at the dandelion flowers, preening and stretching. I gently went back inside, grabbed my camera and came back out to photograph it. The rail seemed to be oblivious to my presence and carried on fossicking for quite some time before moving out of sight behind the swale. A day later I flushed it from beside the house feeding amongst the dichondra and roses. Off it flew down the paddock flashing its buff stripes.

Buff-banded rails are usually seen singly or sometimes in pairs. I have only seen individual rails here. They commonly are seen feeding early in the morning or late in the afternoon, hunting for anything from insects and small crustaceans and snails to seeds and fruits. And presumable dandelion flowers too. They live in dense damp vegetation found on the margins on wetlands both natural and man made. Their cup shaped nest is built on the ground, hidden in dense vegetation or reeds and grasses. Both parents incubate the young. The downy black chicks are able to leave the nest within twenty fours hours of hatching, being cared for by both parents in much the same way as chooks and ducks.