| FUN FACT |
| The introduction of the brown tree snake have exhausted the population on the island of Guam. |
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The Guam Rail is extinct in the wild. It has dark brown on the upperparts with a dull green band on their breast that fades to gray. A gray stripe stretches from the bill to the hind-neck, with a brown stripe through the eye. The bill is black with a gray base, and the legs are gray. The breast, abdomen, wing feathers, and the outer primary feathers have distinct black and white barring.
They have been extinct in the wild since 1997, and the captive population is critically endangered. This species was wiped out by the brown tree snake, which was introduced accidentally on the island of Guam during World War II. A small conservation program began in 1983 in special breeding facilities and American zoos. Now the Guam Rail is part of the Species Survival Plan, and captive breeding has been found to be successful. A reintroduction program of an experimental population was recently established on the nearby island of Rota. Two pair of Guam Rails are in the breeding program at the National Aviary. The breeding pairs have hatched a dozen young.
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| DISTRIBUTION |
| Formerly of Guam and Marianas Islands |
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| HABITAT |
| Forest, grassland, and mixed woodlands |
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| DIET |
| Insects, seeds and flowers from grasses, snails, slugs, some vegetable matter. |
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| BREEDING |
| Their nest is a shallow cup of loosely woven grass built in dense grass by the pair. Incubation of the 2-4 eggs lasts 19 days. The chicks are covered in black down, and leave the nests within 24 hours of hatching. |
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| STATUS |
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| AT THE AVIARY |
| See this bird in the Tropical Forest free-flight area |
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