Laysan Rail

The Laysan rail was an opportunist that fed mainly on invertebrates such as moths, Neoscatella sexnotata (brine flies), blowflies, and their larvae; plant leaves, seeds, and eggs and carcasses of seabirds were eaten when they were available. It was an aggressive bird that would fight off other species, particularly the Laysan finch: the latter is very adept at breaking open seabird's eggs to consume the contents, while the rail was much less so. Consequently, rails would linger around in the seabird colony, be on the lookout for finches which had just cracked open an egg, chase these away, and consume the egg's contents. On Midway, the rails were seen to steal food from domestic chicken. There exists no permanent source of freshwater on Laysan, and while the rails must have been able to cover their needs from the body fluids of prey and the content of eggs, they would eagerly drink from and bathe in pools of water remaining after heavy rain, or a pan of water provided by an observer. Although it was flightless, it would use its wings to assist in keeping balance when running quickly and jumping; this way, they were able to make jumps of somewhat less than 1 metre (3.3 ft). They were nimble and restless, retreating to the tussocks to avoid predators, but chiefly to escape the mid-day heat; if they felt threatened, they often hid in the burrows of petrels. The birds were most active in the open in the morning and afternoon hours, but it could regularly be seen all day and heard calling at night. Laysan rails had no natural enemies apart from occasional predation by frigatebirds; all reports remarked upon its fearlessness, and if an observer stood still, rails would approach and even climb over him to search for scraps of food. One bird, removed from its nest in an attempt to photograph the eggs, would immediately return to protect her clutch. The species was somewhat territorial, more so during the breeding season. On Laysan, carrying capacity was reached at 10–13 square metres (110–140 sq ft) of habitat per bird, while on Midway, population density was one-fourth of this figure; in captivity, an enclosure of roughly 8 square metres (86 sq ft) was sufficient for two pairs, but introducing more birds into this space would lead to fights.

It was endemic to Laysan (although an introduced population was present on Midway Atoll for some decades early in the 20th century); some authors have noted that there were tales of flightless rails on other Hawaiian islands, but they refer to local forms extinct before Western contact. A supposed early record from Lisianski Island might more likely refer to migrant rails, or alternatively to a distinct species that evolved in parallel to the Laysan rail; however, given the barrenness of Lisianski and the lack of material evidence, this is quite unlikely.

Laysan is considered one of the most important seabird colonies in the United States. It has thousands of black-footed albatross, Laysan albatross as well as shearwaters and terns. The island also held 5 unique (sub)species of land- and waterbirds, including the Laysan rail. The extinction of this species is particularly unfortunate as it could have easily been avoided. The rail was initially threatened when domestic rabbits were introduced to Laysan. With no predators to control their numbers the rabbits soon ate the entire vegetation cover on the island. This turned the island into a barren dust bowl, sending the Laysan millerbird and the Laysan honeycreeper (both subspecies endemic to the island) to extinction; the Laysan finch and Laysan duck both managed to survive. In the 1900s, when destruction of the vegetation by the rabbits had only just started, the rail's population was around 2000 mature birds and at carrying capacity; it remained so until at least the early 1910s, but declined thereafter. In 1923, only two birds could be found on Laysan, and of eight that were on that occasion brought from Midway, at least two died almost immediately from lack of food and shelter. The species is believed to have become extinct on Laysan during 1923, probably mainly because no habitat for nesting was left in sufficient quantity to maintain the population. The last rail was seen on Eastern Island in Midway in June 1944.