The Black Rail is, latitudinally, the most widely distributed member of its genus occurring from high in the temperate zone of North America down to central Chile. Despite its trans-tropical distribution, in the Neotropics the black rail has a very patchy distribution with a complex pattern of resident and migratory populations in the Caribbean, Central and North America and in South America proper, three named and phenotypically distinctive subspecies occurring along coastal Peru, Lago Junin (Peru) and the central coast of Chile. It breeds a wide diversity of habitats such as fresh and saline marshes, wet meadows and savanna and likely occurs in more on wintering grounds. Its natural history is the best known in its genus due to work in temperate North America where it primarily feeds on small aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates.