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Bird

King Rail

Rallus elegans

Lives in Mississippi all year and nests here. Found in all 82 counties, across 6 habitats.

Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
All 82 counties
Habitats
6

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
All 82 counties
Habitats
6
Habitat models
Summer, Winter

Where it lives

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

Habitats in Mississippi 6

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

1 of 6

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

Pine savannas

Open, fire-kept longleaf pine stands over grasses and wildflowers on wet to moist sandy soil.

SummerWinterEast Gulf Coastal Plain Savanna and Wet Prairie

Salt and brackish marshes

Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.

SummerWinterMississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh
Other habitats in its models (31)

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

Elsewhere in the South (17)
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 Mississippi

  • Year-round: nests here, in 67 of 82 counties.
  • Summer: nests here, in 30 of 82 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 82

Plant genera in its diet records (6)
  • Oryza Seeds. 8 diet records. 0 native plants in Mississippi
  • Echinochloa Seeds. 1 diet record. 4 native plants in Mississippi
  • Leersia Seeds. 1 diet record. 4 native plants in Mississippi
  • Paspalum Seeds. 1 diet record. 16 native plants in Mississippi
  • Polygonum Seeds. 1 diet record. 1 native plant in Mississippi
  • Rhynchospora Seeds. 1 diet record. 57 native plants in Mississippi

Avian Diet Database (Hurlbert Lab), CC0 1.0.

Also found in its main habitats

Its main habitats in Mississippi, 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 123

Plants 118

All of coastal dunes and beaches in Mississippi

Disturbed and introduced wetlands

Birds 152

Plants 26

All of disturbed and introduced wetlands in Mississippi

Coastal Plain seepage bogs

Birds 53

Plants 61

All of coastal plain seepage bogs in Mississippi

USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.

Sources