States
North CarolinaTennesseeGeorgiaSouth CarolinaKentuckyAlabamaArkansasFloridaLouisianaMississippiVirginiaWest Virginia
Menu

Bird

King Rail

Rallus elegans

Lives in Louisiana all year and nests here. Found in all 64 parishes, across 5 habitats.

Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
All 64 parishes
Habitats
5

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
All 64 parishes
Habitats
5
Habitat models
Summer, Winter

Where it lives

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

Habitats in Louisiana 5

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

1 of 5

Swamps

The Land of Evangeline
SummerWest Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Large River SwampJoseph 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. Louisiana bayou country (Meeker, The Land of Evangeline, 1874)The Land of Evangeline, Joseph Rusling Meeker, 1874. Public domain. Source record.

Coastal dunes and beaches

Open sand of beaches, dunes and the hollows between them.

SummerWinterUnconsolidated Shore (Beach/Dune); Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain Interdunal Wetland

Coastal Plain seepage bogs

Open, wet, seepage-fed bogs of the Coastal Plain and Sandhills, often with pitcher plants.

SummerWinterSouthern Coastal Plain Herbaceous Seepage Bog

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.

SummerWinter

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
Other habitats in its models (32)

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

Elsewhere in the South (18)
  • 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.
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.
  • Central Interior and Appalachian Shrub-Herbaceous Wetland Systems Summer and winter.
  • Central Interior and Appalachian Swamp Systems 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.
  • Unconsolidated Shore Winter.
  • Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Winter.
  • Western Great Plains Depressional Wetland Systems Summer.
  • Western Great Plains Floodplain Systems Summer.

All habitats

Seasons in Louisiana

  • Year-round: nests here, in all 64 parishes.

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 66

Plant genera in its diet records (6)
  • Oryza Seeds. 8 diet records. 0 native plants in Louisiana
  • Echinochloa Seeds. 1 diet record. 3 native plants in Louisiana
  • Leersia Seeds. 1 diet record. 4 native plants in Louisiana
  • Paspalum Seeds. 1 diet record. 13 native plants in Louisiana
  • Polygonum Seeds. 1 diet record. 2 native plants in Louisiana
  • Rhynchospora Seeds. 1 diet record. 44 native plants in Louisiana

Avian Diet Database (Hurlbert Lab), CC0 1.0.

Also found in its main habitats

Its main habitats in Louisiana, 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.

Coastal dunes and beaches

Birds 128

Plants 84

All of coastal dunes and beaches in Louisiana

Disturbed and introduced wetlands

Birds 169

Plants 20

All of disturbed and introduced wetlands in Louisiana

Coastal Plain seepage bogs

Birds 59

Plants 43

All of coastal plain seepage bogs in Louisiana

USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.

Sources