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Sora Porzana carolina Polluela Sora,
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Photo: G. Beaton
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Sora Porzana carolina Polluela Sora,
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Photo: G. Beaton
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IDENTIFICATION: A brown-backed marsh bird with a black face and a short yellow bill. Length: 20-25 cm.; weight: 72-88 g. VOICE: On its breeding grounds and in spring migration it gives a whinnying call, "whee-hee-hee-hee". The alarm call is a squeaky note. Audio (M. Oberle). HABITAT: Freshwater marshes and wet cane fields, occasionally mangroves. HABITS: The Sora eats seeds, insects and snails as it walks on top of march vegetation or swims in ponds. Like other rails, it prefers to run from danger rather than fly. In North America, the female builds a nest in dense marsh vegetation and lays 8-11 eggs. Both sexes share incubation duties for 16-19 days. The chicks leave the nest and start feeding themselves about 3-4 days after hatching. But the parents continue to brood the young at night and to provide food for the first three weeks. About four weeks after hatching the chicks strike out on their own. From August through October, the Sora migrates at night, sometimes thousands of miles to fresh and saltwater marshes for the winter. STATUS AND CONSERVATION: A shy, uncommon winter visitor. Much of its marshland breeding habitat in North America has been drained. Although it is still locally common there, the breeding population has decreased by 3.3% per year in 1996-1991. The Sora is legally hunted in 31 states in the USA and 2 provinces in Canada. RANGE: Breeds in freshwater marshes in southern Canada and the northern USA. It winters in the southern USA, south through the West Indies to central South America. Regular at Laguna Cartagena National Wildlife Refuge and Caño Tiburones Nature Reserve. TAXONOMY: GRUIFORMES; RALLIDAE |
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Photo: G. Beaton
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Photo: G. Beaton
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Photo: G. Beaton
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References Bent, A.C. 1926. Life histories of North American marsh birds. Smithsonian Instit. U.S. National Museum Bull. 135. (Reprinted by Dover Press, NY, 1963). Burt, W. 1994. Shadowbirds: a quest for rails. Lyons Press, New York. del Hoyo, J., A. Elliott, and J. Sargatal, eds. 1996. Handbook of Birds of the World, Vol. 3. Hoatzin to Auks. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. Melvin, S. M. and J. P. Gibbs. 1996. Sora (Porzana carolina). No. 250 in The birds of North America (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia, PA, and Am. Ornithol. Union, Washington, D.C. Raffaele, H.A. 1989. A guide to the birds of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Princeton. Raffaele, H.A. 1989. Una guía a las aves de Puerto Rico y las Islas Vírgenes. Publishing Resources, Inc., Santurce, PR. Raffaele, H.A., J.W. Wiley, O.H. Garrido, A.R. Keith, and J.I. Raffaele. 1998. Guide to the birds of the West Indies. Princeton. Taylor, B. Rails. 1998. Rails: a guide to the rails, crakes, gallinules, and coots of the world, Yale University and Pica Press. Next related species in taxonomic order Previous related species in taxonomic order |