This small, shy marsh bird is 7.9-9.8 in (20-25 cm) in length with a wingspan of 14-15.7 inches (35-40 cm).
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 lives in salt, brackish, and freshwater marshes, rice fields, and marshy ponds. It prefers areas with cattails, sedges*, and other tall plants.
*Sedges are plants that look like grass and usually grow in clumps in wet areas. Unlike most plants, which have round stems, sedges have stems shaped like triangles. They also have silica in their leaves. Silica is the same material used to make glass, so sedge leaves can be very sharp! A handy way to remember the difference between sedges and grasses is: “Sedges have edges.”
The sora eats seeds, insects, and snails. It usually picks its food from the surface of the water, the ground, or off plants, but it will sometimes probe in the mud or vegetation for food.
Soras form breeding pairs in the early spring. Both the male and the female preen for each other during courtship.
The female 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 are precocial and feed themselves shortly after hatching. Both parents incubate the eggs and care for the chicks. The chicks fledge (develop flight feathers) in 20-25 days.
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.
The sora is sometimes called the Carolina crake or the sora rail.
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The sora breeds in New Hampshire. It is most common in the southern part of the state.
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.
