As my Urban Birder moniker suggests, I have a keen interest in birds that have chosen to call cities their home. Recently, I decided to research the birds named after particular locations.
A few names popped up, such as the Nashville warbler, Dartford warbler, Sandwich tern and Baltimore oriole. But I didn’t find any that habitually hung out in the places after which they were named. Except for one: the Bogotá rail.
What is a Bogotá rail?
Rails, by nature, are shy. Secretive. They have plump, laterally compressed bodies, an adaptation for creeping through wet marshes with thick reeds. Think soggy grasslands, cattails and shadowy waterlogged fields that might swallow your wellies whole. When seen front-on, their skinny appearance is thought to give rise to the term ‘thin as a rail’. Rails skitter rather than soar. They hide more than they show. And the Bogotá rail is no exception.
Where are Bogotá rails found?
Its preferred habitat is dense marsh, usually at elevations of 2,000–4,100m, where the air is thin and the fog hangs like a heavy curtain. The Bogotá rail is found nowhere else on the planet but the high Andean wetlands around Bogotá. It’s a regional speciality, like La Ciclovía de Bogotá, which turns city streets into bike paths every Sunday, or hot chocolate with cheese, a local delicacy. Yet most Bogotanos have never heard of the Bogotá rail, and those who have rarely catch more than a whisper just after dawn – perhaps some grunting or a ki-ki-ki-ki echoing through the dense reeds it favours.
Bogotá rails only call during the daytime. A study of the birds in the wetland of La Conejera revealed that they spent an average of 84 per cent of their time hidden in the reeds. They very occasionally venture out into more open terrain when moving between patches of wetland.
What do Bogotá rails look like?
Most people would not recognise one in a line-up. If you are familiar with what a water rail looks like, then there is your Bogotá rail. Sort of. The two look very similar despite being separated by an entire ocean. Neither would win any beauty pageants with their largely drab grey-and-brown plumages and their long, red-based bills.
How vulnerable is the Bogotá rail?
The Bogotá rail is vulnerable to extinction. It faces the same problems that many rail species do globally. Much of its original wetland habitat has been drained or degraded. The sprawling urban web of Bogotá has crept ever outward, pushing the rail into smaller and more fragmented patches. Wetlands such as La Conejera and La Florida are some of its last sanctuaries.
The good news is that it is still locally common and appears able to persist in the small patches of remaining habitat. This bird’s story is a poignant reminder of the delicate edge we’re all dancing on – humans, birds, cities. It speaks to the possibility of coexistence. Of carving out space for the unseen and the unheard. Bogotá’s network of protected wetlands, known as Los Humedales, has become a lifeline not just for the rail but for hundreds of other species and, indeed, for the city’s own ecological health. Wetlands filter water, buffer floods, cool the air. They are green cathedrals humming with life.
So, if you ever get to Bogotá, ditch the museums for a morning. Head to a wetland and watch the mist rise over the still water. Listen. You may not see the Bogotá rail. But knowing it’s there haunting the reeds like a feathered ghost is enough.
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