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A research effort that has revealed a trove of new information about one of the Gulf Coast’s least understood birds is getting a big boost from the federal government. 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded a $3.9 million grant to a Mississippi State University-led group of researchers studying black rails, a rare and poorly understood marsh bird under consideration for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

The grant will also support research into how the black rail’s preferred habitat — high coastal marshlands — also supports yellow rails and mottled ducks.

Since 2017, Audubon Louisiana has collected one of the continent's richest pools of data on the elusive bird. The group's research, focused in Cameron and Vermilion parishes, has more than quadrupled the number of confirmed black rail sightings in Louisiana. It’s also producing new insights into how the black rail feeds, migrates and breeds — all of which will be critical if the bird is granted status as an endangered species. 

Video of the moment we caught our one and only black rail. “Wooo! said @AudubonErik “The bird that doesn’t exist.” https://t.co/XGUzOqbKWl pic.twitter.com/BSNKf1JX3M

The grant will extend Audubon Louisiana’s black rail research for five more years and link it to similar efforts by three other Gulf Coast research teams made up of government and university scientists and land managers.

“It’s absolutely thrilling to have so many smart scientists working on this common goal,” said Erik Johnson, Audubon Louisiana’s director of bird conservation. “And to have Gulf-wide coordination will make everything easier.”

About the size of a beignet with red eyes and gray feathers, black rails once ranged across salt and freshwater marshes along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, but these habitats have been disappearing under growing cities and farms. Sea level rise and Louisiana’s coastal land loss pose new challenges for the bird. 

Another looming issue is the liquid natural gas boom in southwest Louisiana. One export terminal recently opened in Cameron Parish, a hotbed for black rail activity, and at least eight more LNG facilities are planned in the area.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the black rail as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act late last year. The proposal, still undergoing review, notes the bird’s populations have declined by as much as 90% in some coastal areas. 

Audubon Louisiana discovered a stronghold for the species in the Paul J. Rainey Wildlife Sanctuary in Vermilion Parish, along with smaller populations in the Chenier Plain, which stretches about 100 miles from Vermilion Bay to the Texas state line. 

The grant will have a special focus on the use of fire to maintain black rail habitats. Natural fires can promote the growth of marsh grasses that black rails favor while controlling the spread of trees and large shrubs. Scientists want to see whether they can replicate the benefits of natural fires with deliberately set and maintained fires, known as prescribed burns. 

“There’s a lot to take into account (for such burns) — time of year, nesting times, elevations, proximity to the coast, rainfall patterns,” Johnson said. 

A better understanding of why black rails value the slightly elevated band of marsh along the Gulf Coast will help land managers conserve it, he said.

The grant-funded project’s first steps include the use of remote sensing technology to create up-to-date maps of high marsh habitats and a pilot study estimating black rail, yellow rail and mottled duck numbers during breeding periods and other times of the year.