Noose carpets: A novel method to capture rails

Avian research may require investigators to capture birds for many reasons, including to collect measurements and attach leg bands or transmitters. The effectiveness and efficiency of capture techniques varies by species, habitat, and time of year. Rails are particularly challenging to capture because of their secretive behavior and the dense vegetation they inhabit. As such, basic natural history questions for many rail species remain unanswered. We paired audio lures with modified noose carpets to capture and study 69 Yuma Ridgway's rails (Rallus obsoletus yumanensis) in the southwestern United States during 2016–2018. We compared results with other more commonly used capture methods, and our results show that noose carpets paired with audio lures can be an effective tool to capture rails, thereby facilitating studies of their ecology and life history. Noose carpets are easy to use, cheap to build and maintain, and effective over a wide range of conditions. This method could be used to capture rails other than the Yuma Ridgway's rail by adjusting the noose size, noose line weight, and audio lures to match the target species. Published 2020. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.