Distribution and Habitat
The Zapata Rail is a Cuban endemic restricted to the northern part of the 4500 km2 (1740 mi2) Zapata Swamp, which is also the only location for the Zapata Wren, and the nominate subspecies of the Zapata Sparrow. The favoured habitat of the Zapata Rail is flooded vegetation, 1.5–2.0 m (60–80 in) tall, consisting of tangled, bush-covered swamp and low trees, and preferably near higher ground. Typical plants of the swamp are wax myrtle, the willow Salix longipes, the sawgrass Cladium jamaicensis, and the narrow leaf cattail.
The rail was once more widespread, with fossil bones found at Havana, Pinar del Río and the Isla de la Juventud. Barbour did not believe that the rail, Zapata Sparrow and Zapata Wren were relics in the sense that they once ranged widely over Cuba (as did, for example, the Dwarf Hutia and the Cuban Crocodile), since the birds are so highly modified for swamp conditions. He considered that conditions similar to those found today may once have extended over the large submerged area now represented by the shallow banks, with scattered mangrove keys, which stretch towards the Isla de la Juventud and perhaps eastward along the southern Cuban coast. The birds fossilized at Isla de al Juventud are smaller than the single extant specimen, but the paucity of available material makes it impossible to establish whether the populations were genuinely different.
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