As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Wednesday, 4 March 2015

Incredibly rare bird sighted

One of the world’s rarest birds has been sighted for the first time in almost four decades.

An ornithological search-team has caught a glimpse of the Critically Endangered Zapata Rail Cyanolimnas cerverai, one of the world’s most threatened waterbirds.

Faded museum specimen of short-tailed dumpy bird with brown upperparts, grey underparts, red eyes, bill and legs
Wikipedia
The bird was sighted at the Zapata Swamp in south-west Cuba, the location which gives the bird its name.
Fewer than 400 individual Zapata Rails are estimated to exist.

Island rails, often poor fliers, are vulnerable to predators and habitat destruction, and 15 species have become extinct since the 17th Century.

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