Black Rail Inventory at Cape Lookout and Cape Hatteras National Seashores 2022-2023 - Open Format Dataset

Eastern black rail populations have experienced declines marked by reductions in occupied sites and decline in numbers within historic strongholds. Evidenced by increasing confinement to the highest portions of the high marsh in recent years, sea-level rise and increased rates of high marsh inundation are likely a major contributing factor to declines. With the population of eastern black rails declining over 75% in the last 10-20 years, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service formally listed the eastern black rail as threatened under the endangered species act on 9 November 2020. To fulfill the need for information to guide management decisions at Cape Lookout and Cape Hatteras National Seashores and to aide in future designations of critical habitat, we conducted widespread, systematic surveys for black rails and other secretive marsh birds within the parks during the breeding seasons of 2022 and 2023. A total of 1,222 surveys were conducted at 431 points over the course of 2 years. In addition to recording detections of all focal species, we recorded detections of 6 eastern black rails on North Core Banks where they were not previously known to occur. The population of black rails occupying the high marsh habitat on North Core Banks could account for 5-10% of the North Carolina black rail population and increase the known sites occupied within the state.