Yuma Ridgway’s rails were considered nonmigratory, but incidental rail mortalities at solar facilities >50 km from any rail habitat called this assumption into question. We have attached satellite transmitters to Yuma Ridgway’s rails for 4 years to elucidate migratory behaviors of this rare bird. To date, we have documented movements from 23 rails, including three adult male Yuma Ridgway’s rails that bred in the U.S., wintered in Mexico, and returned to the U.S. the following summer. These three rails flew >900 km in the fall to mangrove forests along the coast of Sonora and Sinaloa, Mexico and returned to their breeding areas in the U.S. the following spring!  We are excited by these results as they provide actionable data to expand conservation strategies to better account for the annual lifecycle of this endangered species. These results also highlight the need for U.S.-Mexico cooperation given the regular migrations of this rare bird between the two countries. 

Learn more at:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jofo.12344 

 https://sonoranjv.org/tracking-a-marsh-bird-through-desert/ 

https://www.fws.gov/cno/newsroom/Highlights/2020/Yuma-Ridgway-Rail/ 

We have documented a novel and severe chigger mite infestation in the Yuma Ridgway’s rails throughout much of their range. We first encountered the chigger in 2017 in southwestern Arizona and have since documented the chigger on rails in California and northern Mexico. We know little about the origin of this infestation or the impacts of the parasites on the behavior and fitness of Yuma Ridgway’s rails. However, ectoparasite infestations in other species have caused population declines and the intensity and novelty of this ectoparasite infestation, combined with population status of this species, warrants immediate attention to this issue. As such, we are continuing to document the distribution and prevalence of this chigger infestation in the rails (and other sympatric species).

Follow this link for more info: https://doi.org/10.1676/18-55

Yuma Ridgway's rails are difficult to capture because of the dense, inaccessible marsh vegetation they inhabit! We have spent years developing methods to effectively and efficiently capture these secretive marsh birds. Our preferred method to capture adult rails is to pair modified noose carpets (foot snares) with bluetooth speakers that broadcast rail calls. As the rails approach the speaker to investigate the vocalizing "rail," their feet become entangled in the noose carpets. We always stay close to the traps so as to quickly and safely extract any captured bird. We developed this method for Yuma Ridgway's rails, but it could be used on other birds by adjusting the noose size, noose line weight, and audio lures to match the target species.

Learn more at: https://doi.org/10.1002/wsb.1068

https://wildlife.org/wsb-noose-carpets-lasso-rare-rails/ 

https://www.audubon.org/news/what-its-catch-and-band-yuma-ridgways-rail

Emergent marshes around the Salton Sea, California support one of the largest remaining populations of the federally endangered Yuma Ridgway’s rails in the U.S. Much of the rail habitat at the Salton Sea is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and California Department of Fish and Wildlife. However, unmanaged marshes have appeared recently at agricultural drainage outlets around the Salton Sea and marsh bird survey results suggest the rails are moving away from managed wetlands into the new marshes around agricultural drainages. Importantly, the unmanaged marshes receive agricultural drainage water with varying concentrations of selenium, whereas managed marshes receive Colorado River water with relatively low concentrations of selenium. Selenium affects reproductive success (e.g., embryo development) at elevated concentrations, and, hence, rails within the unmanaged marshes may be at risk from elevated selenium concentrations. We are documenting selenium burdens in breeding rails and selenium concentrations in rail prey items within managed and unmanaged marshes around the Salton Sea to assess the risk selenium concentrations in these unmanaged marshes may pose to Yuma Ridgway’s rails. Such information will help guide conservation efforts both locally (e.g., can managers safely use no-cost drain water to create marshes for Yuma Ridgway’s rails?) and throughout the entire range of this federally endangered rail.