Black Rail
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Black Rail Laterallus jamaicensis
Sibley's describes the mouse-like black rail as a "tiny, extremely secretive species as hard to see as mice; very difficult to flush; they never willingly give good views of themselves"

But due to San Francisco bay storm flooding I got lucky! :-)

From this view you can begin to see how "compressed" a rail is. Viewed head on, it's a pretty thin bird - as thin as a rail...

Laterallus jamaicensis - Palo Alto Baylands, CA
Focal length: 700 mm fStop: 8 ISO: 100 Shutter Speed: 1/100
Palo Alto, CA - Baylands
Jan 1, 2006