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Bird

King Rail

Rallus elegans

Lives in North Carolina all year and nests here. Found in 47 of 100 counties, across 9 habitats.

Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
47 of 100 counties
Habitats
9

At a glance

Group
Birds
Here
All year
Nesting
Nests here
Range
47 of 100 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 North Carolina 9

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

1 of 9

Freshwater marshes

Georgia pond and emergent wetland
SummerWinterCentral Interior and Appalachian Shrub-Herbaceous Wetland SystemsRegional / representative. Shown: Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, Georgia; representative pond ecosystem, a neighboring state.Georgia pond and emergent wetland, Robert 'Bob' Hynes, 1997. Public domain. Source record.

Swamps

View, Dismal Swamp, North Carolina
SummerWinterCentral Interior and Appalachian Swamp Systems; Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Tidal Wooded SwampNamed place / source context. Great Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, as titled by Museum of Fine Arts Boston; nineteenth-century artistic interpretationView, Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, Regis Francois Gignoux, 1850. 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 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

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.

SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Clay-Based Carolina Bay Herbaceous Wetland; Atlantic Coastal Plain Depression Pondshore

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 tidal marshes

Marshes along tidal rivers where the water is fresh but rises and falls with the tide.

SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Freshwater Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Central Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh

Salt and brackish marshes

Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.

SummerWinterAtlantic Coastal Plain Central Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh; Atlantic Coastal Plain Embayed Region Tidal Salt and Brackish Marsh

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 (25)

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

Elsewhere in the South (15)
  • 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 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 (7)
  • 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 North Carolina

  • Year-round: nests here, in 25 of 100 counties.
  • Summer: nests here, in 35 of 100 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 77

Plant genera in its diet records (6)
  • Oryza Seeds. 8 diet records. 0 native plants in North Carolina
  • Echinochloa Seeds. 1 diet record. 2 native plants in North Carolina
  • Leersia Seeds. 1 diet record. 4 native plants in North Carolina
  • Paspalum Seeds. 1 diet record. 11 native plants in North Carolina
  • Polygonum Seeds. 1 diet record. 5 native plants in North Carolina
  • Rhynchospora Seeds. 1 diet record. 55 native plants in North Carolina

Avian Diet Database (Hurlbert Lab), CC0 1.0.

Also found in its main habitats

Its main habitats in North Carolina, 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.

Depression ponds and limesinks

Birds 71

Plants 123

All of depression ponds and limesinks in North Carolina

Freshwater tidal marshes

Birds 81

Plants 30

All of freshwater tidal marshes in North Carolina

Salt and brackish marshes

Birds 92

Plants 52

All of salt and brackish marshes in North Carolina

USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models.

Sources