A secretive marsh bird once found in Tennessee wetlands faces extinction.

The Eastern black rail was federally listed as threatened in 2020, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is now drafting a plan for the recovery of the small, dark gray bird with red eyes.

Rails live in wetlands, like fresh and saltwater marshes and wet meadows. The birds have the unique ability to laterally compress their bodies to walk through marsh without moving a blade of grass. This is likely the root of the expression, “skinny as a rail.” The black rail is the smallest of the North American rails, at about four to six inches.

The King rail, a relative and the largest rail, has recently nested in the Duck River watershed, which has many, scattered wetlands.

But the black rail hasn’t been spotted recently i

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