Inaccessible rail

Description

The Inaccessible Island rail (Atlantisia rogersi) is a small bird of the rail family,Rallidae.It is the only species in the genus Atlantisia.Endemic to Inaccessible Island in the Tristan Archipelago in the isolated south Atlantic,it is notable for being the smallest extant flightless bird in the world.The species was described by physician Percy Lowe in 1923 but had first come to the attention of scientists 50 years earlier.The Inaccessible Island rail's closest relatives are uncertain but may be crakes in the genus Laterallus. A small species,the Inaccessible Island rail has brown plumage and a black bill and feet.It occupies most habitats on Inaccessible Island,from the beaches to the central plateau,feeding on a variety of small invertebrates and also some plant matter.Pairs are territorial and monogamous,with both parents being responsible for incubating the eggs and raising the chicks.Its adaptations to living on a tiny island at high densities include low base metabolic rates,small clutch sizes,and flightlessness. Unlike many other oceanic islands,Inaccessible Island has remained free from introduced predators,allowing this species to flourish while many other flightless birds,particularly flightless rails,have gone extinct.The species is nevertheless considered vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN),due to its single small population,which would be threatened by the accidental introduction of mammalian predators such as rats or cats.