Cape rail

Weight

145 g – 175.5 g

Length

Not recorded

Lifespan

Not recorded

Diet

Aquatic predator

Main food

Not recorded

Habitat

wetland

Young per litter or clutch

4.1

Lifestyle

Terrestrial

Migration

Sedentary

Conservation status

Not recorded

Countries on record

Not recorded

Not recorded

No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.

1. kingdomAnimalia
2. phylumChordata
3. classAves
4. orderGruiformes
5. familyRallidae
6. genusRallus
7. SpeciesRallus caerulescens J. F. Gmelin, 1789

Synonyms Rallus caeruleus, Rallus neglectus

Catalogue of Life

LC, Least Concern

Water rail

Rallus aquaticus

Rallidae

B

Bogota rail

Rallus semiplumbeus

RallidaeNo free photo yet

L

Lesser rail

Rallus limicola

RallidaeNo free photo yet

C

Clapper rail

Rallus longirostris

RallidaeNo free photo yet

M

Madagascan rail

Rallus madagascariensis

RallidaeNo free photo yet

K

King rail

Rallus elegans

RallidaeNo free photo yet

CompareCape rail vs Water railCape rail vs Bogota railCape rail vs Lesser railCape rail vs Clapper rail

• An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
  Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1
• AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits · CC BY 4.0 · v1
  Oliveira, B.F., São-Pedro, V.A., Santos-Barrera, G., Penone, C. & Costa, G.C. (2017) AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits. Scientific Data 4: 170123. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.123. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4644424.v5
• AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
  Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7
• Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
  Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
• Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
  Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
• EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
  Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1
• Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
  Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
• Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
  Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

@misc{cape_rail_2026,
  title = {Cape rail (Rallus caerulescens)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/cape-rail},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}