Bird
Black Rail
Laterallus jamaicensis
Lives in Florida all year and nests here. Found in 52 of 67 counties, across 9 habitats.
- Here
- All year
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- 52 of 67 counties
- Habitats
- 9

At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- All year
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- 52 of 67 counties
- Habitats
- 9
- Habitat models
- Summer, Winter
Where it lives
The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.
Habitats in Florida 9
Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.


Open sand of beaches, dunes and the hollows between them.
Coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated)
Tidal marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where the source does not say whether the water is fresh, brackish or salt. A stated salinity files the marsh under freshwater tidal marshes or salt and brackish marshes instead.
Depression ponds and limesinks
Shallow ponds in Coastal Plain depressions, such as limesinks and the ponds in some Carolina bays, that rise and fall with the seasons.
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.
Marshes along tidal rivers where the water is fresh but rises and falls with the tide.
Open, fire-kept longleaf pine stands over grasses and wildflowers on wet to moist sandy soil.
Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.
Other habitats in its models (12)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Florida.
- Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Summer and winter.
- Unconsolidated Shore Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh Summer and winter.
- Central Florida Herbaceous Seep Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Summer and winter.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Wooded Swamp Summer and winter.
- South Florida Wet Marl Prairie Summer and winter.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Summer and winter.
- South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Summer and winter.
Seasons in Florida
- Year-round: nests here, in 42 of 67 counties.
- Winter: does not nest here, in 48 of 67 counties.
Also found in this habitat
Plants 251
Plants named in NatureServe descriptions of these habitats that grow in Florida. Shared habitat, not food.
- Black NeedlerushJuncus roemerianus
- Common WaxmyrtleMorella cerifera
- Saltmarsh CordgrassSpartina alterniflora
- Tropical WaxweedCuphea aspera
- Seashore SaltgrassDistichlis spicata
- MaidencaneHymenachne hemitomon
- Curtiss' PrimrosewillowLudwigia curtissii
- Violet ButterwortPinguicula ionantha
- Common Three Square BulrushSchoenoplectus pungens
- Saltmeadow CordgrassSpartina patens
- Groundsel-treeBaccharis halimifolia
- Blue Water-hyssopBacopa caroliniana
- Sea OxeyeBorrichia frutescens
- Coelorachis tuberculosaCoelorachis tuberculosa
- Erectleaf WitchgrassDichanthelium erectifolium
- Yaupon HollyIlex vomitoria
- Fragrant Water-lilyNymphaea odorata
- SwitchgrassPanicum virgatum
- Live OakQuercus virginiana
- Southern BeaksedgeRhynchospora microcarpa
- Serenoa repensSerenoa repens
- Southern CattailTypha domingensis
- Southern Wild-riceZizaniopsis miliacea
- Red MapleAcer rubrum
Wildlife 269
Other animals whose habitat models include the same habitats in Florida. Not sighting records.
- Wood DuckAix sponsa
- American GoldfinchCarduelis tristis
- Common LoonGavia immer
- Common TernSterna hirundo
- Glossy IbisPlegadis falcinellus
- Laughing GullLeucophaeus atricilla
- Least TernSternula antillarum
- LimpkinAramus guarauna
- Nelson's Sharp-tailed SparrowAmmodramus nelsoni
- Northern Rough-winged SwallowStelgidopteryx serripennis
- Red-shouldered HawkButeo lineatus
- Red-throated LoonGavia stellata
- RedheadAythya americana
- Tricolored HeronEgretta tricolor
- Yellow RailCoturnicops noveboracensis
- American KestrelFalco sparverius
- American OystercatcherHaematopus palliatus
- American RobinTurdus migratorius
- Barn SwallowHirundo rustica
- Black SkimmerRynchops niger
- Brewer's BlackbirdEuphagus cyanocephalus
- Brown PelicanPelecanus occidentalis
- Eastern Brown PelicanPelecanus occidentalis carolinensis
- Eastern PhoebeSayornis phoebe
NatureServe Explorer, CC BY 4.0. USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.
Sources
- USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models (2001)
- USGS GAP winter habitat model for Black Rail
- USGS Gap Analysis Project range maps (2001), modeled by watershed; migratory gives no dates
- NatureServe Explorer (CC BY 4.0), habitat names
- US Census TIGER/Line counties
- Names follow the USGS Gap Analysis Project (2001)







































