Avian research may require investigators to capture birds for many reasons, including to collect measurements and attach leg bands or transmitters. The effectiveness and efficiency of capture techniques varies by species, habitat, and time of year. Rails are particularly challenging to capture because of their secretive behavior and the dense vegetation they inhabit. As such, basic natural history questions for many rail species remain unanswered. We paired audio lures with modified noose carpets to capture and study 69 Yuma Ridgway's rails (Rallus obsoletus yumanensis) in the southwestern United States during 2016–2018. We compared results with other more commonly used capture methods, and our results show that noose carpets paired with audio lures can be an effective tool to capture rails, thereby facilitating studies of their ecology and life history. Noose carpets are easy to use, cheap to build and maintain, and effective over a wide range of conditions. This method could be used to capture rails other than the Yuma Ridgway's rail by adjusting the noose size, noose line weight, and audio lures to match the target species. Published 2020. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

中文翻译：

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绞索地毯：一种捕获铁轨的新方法

鸟类研究可能会出于多种原因要求研究人员捕获鸟类，包括收集测量值并连接腿带或发射器。捕获技术的有效性和效率因物种，栖息地和一年中的时间而异。由于铁轨的秘密行为和它们所居住的茂密植物，使其很难捕获。因此，许多铁路物种的基本自然历史问题仍未得到解答。我们将音频诱饵与改良的套索地毯配对，以捕获和研究69个Yuma Ridgway的铁轨（Rallus obsoletus yumanensis））在2016-2018年期间在美国西南部。我们将结果与其他更常用的捕获方法进行了比较，我们的结果表明，套索式地毯与音频诱饵配对可以有效捕获铁轨，从而有助于对其生态学和生活史的研究。套索式地毯易于使用，制造和维护便宜，并且在各种条件下均有效。通过调整套索尺寸，套索线宽和音频诱饵以匹配目标物种，此方法可用于捕获Yuma Ridgway轨道以外的轨道。出版于2020年。本文是美国政府的工作，在美国属于公共领域。