Hiding in the cattails, the secretive Sora is a challenging marsh bird to find whether it’s early summer or late fall when they’re migrating south to warmer temperatures.
And the Sora at Kensington Metropark I saw this week confirmed how elusive they can be to find.
A member of the rail family, Soras are football-shaped grayish-brown birds that walk slowly as it forages on the ground in the marsh.
Almost always hidden from view.
I usually hear their distinctive whinny call long before I find them.
Until this month, I didn’t realize Soras are the most abundant and widespread rails in North America.
Viewing a Sora Takes Patience
Thanks to another birder at the park who also wanted to find the Sora, we had two pairs of eyes peering through the reeds.
We heard the bird call a couple times from the boardwalk, so we knew it was nearby.
For over 20 minutes, we checked shadows at the base of plants and watched the small mudflats off the marsh boardwalk when suddenly, a bird scurried across one mudflat into a cluster of reeds.
“There it is!” I called out to the other birder as I pointed to reeds about 15 feet in front of us.
“I saw its yellow bill.”
It took us another five minutes before we could find movement at the base of the cattails and finally saw the Sora slowly walk into a sunlit area as it foraged.
Check out those green legs!
A couple minutes later, it disappeared into the shadows again.
