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Bird

Virginia Rail

Rallus limicola

A winter visitor to Mississippi, found in 9 of 82 counties and 7 habitats.

Here
Winter
Nesting
Not known to nest here
Range
9 of 82 counties
Habitats
7

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
Winter
Nesting
Not known to nest here
Range
9 of 82 counties
Habitats
7
Habitat models
Summer, Winter

Where it lives

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

Habitats in Mississippi 7

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

1 of 7

Swamps

The Land of Evangeline
SummerWinterEast Gulf Coastal Plain Tidal Wooded 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. 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.

Coastal dunes and beaches

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

SummerWinterAtlantic 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 (35)

Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in Mississippi. Those recorded in Mississippi 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 Large Natural Lakeshore Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Wooded Swamp Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Tidal Wooded Swamp Summer and winter.
  • Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Summer and winter.
  • Central Florida Herbaceous Seep 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 Cypress Dome 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 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.
  • Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Basin Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest Summer and winter.
Midwest (1)
  • Western Great Plains Wooded Draw and Ravine Winter, only within 250 m of water.
Land cover and other classes (13)
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Forested Wetland Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Depression Pondshore Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Nonriverine Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest - Taxodium/Nyssa Modifier Summer and winter.
  • Atlantic Coastal Plain Streamhead Seepage Swamp - Pocosin - and Baygall Summer and winter.
  • Central Interior and Appalachian Floodplain Systems Summer and winter.
  • Central Interior and Appalachian Riparian Systems Summer and winter.
  • Central Interior and Appalachian Swamp Systems Summer and winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Herbaceous Modifier Summer and winter.
  • East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Summer and winter.
  • Eastern Great Plains Wet Meadow, Prairie, and Marsh Summer and winter.
  • South-Central Interior Large Floodplain - Herbaceous Modifier Summer and winter.
  • Western Great Plains Depressional Wetland Systems Summer and winter.

All habitats

Seasons in Mississippi

  • Winter: does not nest here, in 9 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 171

Plant genera in its diet records (11)
  • Lemna Leaves. 5 diet records. 6 native plants in Mississippi
  • Agropyron 3 diet records. 0 native plants in Mississippi
  • Carex 3 diet records. 131 native plants in Mississippi
  • Polygonum 3 diet records. 1 native plant in Mississippi
  • Scirpus 3 diet records. 6 native plants in Mississippi
  • Bidens Seeds. 2 diet records. 8 native plants in Mississippi
  • Bolboschoenus Seeds. 2 diet records. 1 native plant in Mississippi
  • Chenopodium Seeds. 2 diet records. 3 native plants in Mississippi
  • Leersia Seeds. 2 diet records. 4 native plants in Mississippi
  • Schoenoplectus Seeds. 2 diet records. 8 native plants in Mississippi
  • Setaria 1 diet record. 3 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.

Disturbed and introduced wetlands

Birds 158

Plants 26

All of disturbed and introduced wetlands in Mississippi

Coastal dunes and beaches

Birds 127

Plants 118

All of coastal dunes and beaches in Mississippi

Coastal Plain seepage bogs

Birds 55

Plants 61

All of coastal plain seepage bogs in Mississippi

USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.

Sources