COVER STORY
THE largest of the 155 species in the rail family Rallidae is the goose-sized flightless gallinule the takahe (Porphyrio mantelli) of New Zealand. Here is a species that is still surviving, despite the humiliation of being declared extinct twice.
At the other end of the size range are the diminutive black rail (Laterallus jamaicensis) of the Americas and the slightly smaller Inaccessible rail (L. rogersi) from the island of the same name off the coast of Africa. This is the world's smallest flightless bird: the size of a sparrow.
Most species of rails and crakes have a long, curved, thin beak and their body is laterally compressed, which aids movement through dense reeds and marginal cover in waterways. These birds are obsessively secretive and detected
