Winter Ecology of Yellow Rails Based on South Carolina Specimens

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Arthur T. Wayne collected 58 Yellow Rails (Coturnicops noveboracensis) during seven winters between 1903 and 1918 at one locality on the Atlantic coast in Charleston County, South Carolina. The collection represents the largest known series of Yellow Rails from a single wintering site and provides information about the winter ecology of this species. There was no evidence that Yellow Rail numbers varied between winters. The sex ratio was significantly biased toward females suggesting the occurrence of differential wintering. Yellow Rails were collected mainly in wet (freshwater) fields with short dense grass, the same features of Yellow Rail habitats in coastal Texas. Yellow Rails were consistently located in the same habitats as LeConte's Sparrow (Ammodramus leconteii). Two other grassland species, Henslow's Sparrows (A. henslowii) and Sedge Wrens (Cistothorus palustris), had habitat occupancy patterns significantly different from that of Yellow Rails.