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Bird

King Rail

Rallus elegans

Lives in Arkansas all year and nests here. Found in all 75 counties, across 4 habitats.

Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
All 75 counties
Habitats
4

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
All 75 counties
Habitats
4
Habitat models
Summer, Winter

Where it lives

The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.

Habitats in Arkansas 4

Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.

1 of 4

Swamps

The Land of Evangeline
SummerWinterCentral Interior and Appalachian Swamp SystemsJoseph Rusling Meeker, The Land of Evangeline (1874): moss-hung trees over a still bayou in Louisiana swamp forest. Regional view: the painting does not name the exact site. Shown: Louisiana bayou country (Meeker, The Land of Evangeline, 1874), a neighboring state.The Land of Evangeline, Joseph Rusling Meeker, 1874. Public domain. Source record.

Disturbed and introduced wetlands

Wet ground taken over by weedy or introduced plants after disturbance, such as common reed, Chinese tallow or tamarisk stands; the upland counterpart is roadsides, fields and disturbed ground.

SummerWinter

Freshwater marshes

Open, herb-covered wetlands with fresh, non-tidal water.

SummerWinterCentral Interior and Appalachian Shrub-Herbaceous Wetland Systems

Wet meadows

Open, wet, grassy or sedgy ground that is not a bog.

SummerWinterCentral Interior and Appalachian Shrub-Herbaceous Wetland Systems
Other habitats in its models (35)

Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Arkansas. Those recorded in Arkansas first, the rest by region.

Elsewhere in the South (21)
  • Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain Interdunal Wetland Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Wooded Swamp Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Tidal Wooded Swamp Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Wet Pine Savanna and Flatwoods Summer and winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Savanna and Wet Prairie Summer and winter.
  • Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • South Florida Dwarf Cypress Savanna Summer and winter.
  • South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh Summer and winter.
  • South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Summer and winter.
  • South Florida Pine Flatwoods Summer and winter, only within 250 m of water.
  • South Florida Wet Marl Prairie Summer and winter.
  • Southern Coastal Plain Herbaceous Seepage Bog Summer and winter.
  • West Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Large River Swamp Summer.
Northeast (3)
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt Marsh Summer and winter.
  • North-Central Interior Wet Flatwoods Summer.
Land cover and other classes (11)
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Depression Pondshore Summer and winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Summer and winter.
  • Eastern Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer.
  • Eastern Great Plains Wet Meadow, Prairie, and Marsh Summer.
  • Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plain Tidal Marsh Systems Summer and winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore Winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore (Beach/Dune) Winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Winter.
  • Western Great Plains Depressional Wetland Systems Summer.
  • Western Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer.

All habitats

Seasons in Arkansas

  • Year-round: nests here, in 37 of 75 counties.
  • Summer: nests here, in 56 of 75 counties.

Food plants

Diet records by plant genus, from studies across North America. Not a record from this state. Plants matched by genus.

Native plants in these genera 41

Plant genera in its diet records (6)
  • Oryza Seeds. 8 diet records. 0 native plants in Arkansas
  • Echinochloa Seeds. 1 diet record. 2 native plants in Arkansas
  • Leersia Seeds. 1 diet record. 4 native plants in Arkansas
  • Paspalum Seeds. 1 diet record. 12 native plants in Arkansas
  • Polygonum Seeds. 1 diet record. 5 native plants in Arkansas
  • Rhynchospora Seeds. 1 diet record. 18 native plants in Arkansas

Avian Diet Database (Hurlbert Lab), CC0 1.0.

Also found in its main habitats

Its main habitats in Arkansas, by how much of its habitat model each one is, with the birds most characteristic of each and the plants that grow wild there. Shared habitat, not food.

Disturbed and introduced wetlands

Birds 102

Plants 17

All of disturbed and introduced wetlands in Arkansas

Freshwater marshes

Birds 22

Plants 174

All of freshwater marshes in Arkansas

Swamps

Birds 62

Plants 223

All of swamps in Arkansas

USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.

Sources