Characteristics  This marsh bird is six to eight inches in length with a wingspan of 12 inches. It has a yellow bill and yellow legs. It has a brown body and wings, a gray chest and belly and a black mask on its face. The sora is sometimes called the Carolina crake or the sora rail.
Range
 The sora breeds from British Columbia east to the Maritime Islands and south to California, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania. It usually winters along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts north to California and Virginia.
Habitat
 The sora lives in salt, brackish and freshwater marshes, rice fields and marshy ponds. It prefers areas with cattails, sedges and other tall plants.
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Diet
 The sora eats seeds, insects and snails. It usually picks its food from the surface of the water, the ground, or off of plants, but it will sometimes probe in the mud or vegetation for food.
Life Cycle
 Soras form breeding pairs in the early spring. Both the male and the female will preen for each other during courtship. The female sora lays 6-15 eggs in a cup of cattails and dead leaves. The nest is usually located in a clump of reeds in an open area of a marsh close to water. The chicks hatch after about 18 days. They feed themselves shortly after hatching. Both parents incubate the eggs and care for the chicks. The chicks fledge in 20-25 days.
Behavior
 The sora is rarely seen, but it is often heard! It is especially noisy at dawn when it calls out with a series of sharp calls and whinnying notes.
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