Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

Finding one elusive bird

Portrait of Anastasia Rahlin. She is standing the marsh and smiling at the camera. She is wearing outdoor gear and a knitted cap and has a pencil tucked behind one ear.

Anastasia Rahlin.

VOLO BOG, Ill. – It’s hot and my shirt is sticking to my back. I part scrubby marsh vegetation with one hand and shield my face with the other. Hiking along the margins of Illinois’ only open-water quaking bog, I’m carrying five liters of swamp water in bottles in my backpack, my samples sloshing with each step.

Water samples in transparent, blue-green bottles sit on a desk.

By collecting and analyzing the DNA in water samples from various sites in the bog, researchers can determine which species are active there.

Collecting wetland water samples is far from glamorous. My feet are wet, my legs caked in mud, and I frequently swat at hordes of mosquitoes as I hike, sometimes with as much as 10 liters of water in my pack. I’m not interested in the water; rather, if all goes well, I will find my samples contain the DNA of mysterious marsh birds, called rails, that breed and migrate through Illinois wetlands.

By squeezing my water samples through a fine filter, then extracting and amplifying the DNA that sticks to the filter, I can potentially amplify the bird DNA in each sample and understand which marshes harbor which species of breeding rails.

A boardwalk allows easy passage through parts of the bog.

Photo by Alison Világ

Delete

Edit embedded media in the Files Tab and re-insert as needed.

I’m interested in rails specifically because they’re so difficult to find. While we know the migratory patterns of most bird species that stop over or breed in the U.S., we know very little about when and where rails migrate. Big question marks mar the range maps in Birds of the World, an online tool developed by Cornell University and the bible of life history information for our feathered brethren.

Photo of king rail standing in wetlands. It is facing to the left. It has pale beige on the underside of its head and neck, and is a pale brown along the side of the head and down the back, with black mottled feathers on its back and black and white features under its wings. The top of its head is dark grey-brown. It has a dark brown eye and medium-length, pointed bill.

The largest of American rails, the king rail prefers to forage at the edge of open water in brackish and freshwater marshes.

With my environmental DNA samples, I can start to fill in the gaps of our knowledge of rail distribution. I want to develop models of where rails occur, and I hope to better understand the timing of their migrations. This information will help land managers protect wetlands and better time their wetland mitigation measures.

Field technician Alison Világ holds a least bittern discovered in the team’s wetland surveys. She is standing in low, green marsh grass and wearing hip-high waders and a purple jacket. She is smiling at the camera.

Field technician Alison Világ holds a least bittern discovered in the team’s wetland surveys.

Here in the bog, I reach my final survey point and collect my last water sample. I take a breath, and then hear an angry “CLACK! CLACK! CLACK!” I freeze. Could this be a king rail – an endangered species in Illinois? This is a lifer bird for me. Despite searching for them for months in Illinois wetlands, I have never heard or seen one.

The researchers collected a fecal sample that will allow them to verify that their environmental DNA samples accurately reflect the presence of this bird.

Photo by Anastasia Rahlin

Delete

Edit embedded media in the Files Tab and re-insert as needed.

I scour the reeds ahead and notice a shadow bobbing rapidly toward me. The king rail emerges from the reeds, striding with purpose and very angry that I have trespassed on its territory. It is much larger and taller than I expected, approximately knee-high. I hold my breath as I take a video on my phone and stay until the rail disappears again into the marsh, clacking away.

When I get back to the field truck, I tell field technician Alison Világ that I saw a king rail at our last survey location. She promptly goes to investigate.

A few minutes later, I get the best news of the day. Alison sends a text with only two words: “It pooped!” This is excellent news: A fecal sample from a rail will help us validate our eDNA detection methods.

Editor’s notes:

Rahlin is an assistant ornithologist and urban biotic assessment program manager at the Illinois Natural History Survey, working under the direction of INHS population ecologist Michael Dreslik, who also is an affiliate professor of natural resources and environmental sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Rahlin also is a graduate student in Dreslik’s Population and Community Ecology Lab in NRES. The coronavirus pandemic interrupted Rahlin’s fieldwork in 2020. She looks forward to returning to the field next spring.

The INHS is a division of the Prairie Research Institute at the U. of I.

Subscribe to Behind the Scenes for short blog posts, photos and videos from Illinois faculty, researchers, students and staff about their work and lives. Send an email with “SUBSCRIBE BTS” in the subject line.

Read Next

Humanities Diptych image with book cover of "The New Internationals" and a headshot of English professor David Wright Faladé

English professor’s novel tells of love triangle in post-WWII Paris, based on his family history

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new novel by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign English professor David Wright Faladé tells the story of three people in a love triangle in post-World War II Paris. The characters in “The New Internationals” — a young French woman who has survived the Holocaust, a university student from West Africa and a […]

Life sciences Portrait of the research team posing together.

Minecraft players can now explore whole cells and their contents

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Scientists have translated nanoscale experimental and computational data into precise 3D representations of bacteria, yeast and human epithelial, breast and breast cancer cells in Minecraft, a video game that allows players to explore, build and manipulate structures in three dimensions. The innovation will allow researchers and students of all ages to navigate […]

Arts Photo of seven dancers onstage wearing blue tops and orange or yellow flowing skirts. The backdrop is a Persian design.

February Dance includes works experimenting with live music, technology and a ‘sneaker ballet’

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The dance department at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will present February Dance 2025: Fast Forward this week at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. February Dance will be one of the first performances in the newly renovated Colwell Playhouse Theatre since its reopening. The performances are Jan. 30-Feb. 1. Dance professor […]

Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

507 E. Green St
MC-426
Champaign, IL 61820

Email: stratcom@illinois.edu

Phone (217) 333-5010