SAGINAW COUNTY, Mich. — To see a rail is rare, to convince it to roost in a Michigan wetland is another task.
In a three-year study, a now-former PhD candidate at Central Michigan University used audio playback of rail calls in an attempt to attract the shifty marsh birds to a habitat near the Shiawassee River in central Michigan.
"People wonder why rails are important," said Dustin Brewer, who has since earned a doctorate in earth and ecosystem science from CMU and now currently works as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Missouri. "To lose them would be like losing a section of a beautiful painting."
In collaboration with biologists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Brewer focused on four species: The more common Sora and Virginia Rail and the rare Yellow Rail and King Rail.
"We know very little about them," Brewer said. "There's a lot we need to learn to make sure they persist."
In 2021, the researchers established a baseline for the rail population at the Shiawassee State Game Area and Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge, documenting the birds as they flew overhead during their spring migration.
They also took readily available historical data from eBird, an online database of bird sightings.
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In 2022, the team returned with speakers programmed to play four, 15-minute recordings of the four rail calls at 18 separate survey sites. Set between 80 to 99 decibels, the audio playback was designed to be heard from at least 125-meters in the distance.
From 1.5 hours after sunset to 1.5 hours before sunrise, the calls pierced the night at different intervals, trying to lure the rails like an avain siren.
"Really serene experience being out there at night," Brewer said.
The following spring, the team again returned to survey the wetland, finally concluding that the audio playback had attracted nearly one more rail to each survey site (0.8 per site, specifically).
In "human terms," Brewer likened the test to seeing a crowd of familiar people while on a road trip: "We might slow down and check it out."
The results of the study will soon be published in Avian Conservation and Ecology, a scientific journal.
The rail and the wetlands they inhabit are worth protecting, Brewer says: "We had this vast resource that was almost wiped out in a lot of areas," he said. "They provide some of the greatest biodiversity in any type of area."
