[4] The bird was also illustrated in a hand-colored plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text.

[5] Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Rallus longirostris in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées.

[6] The genus Rallus had been erected in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.

Worldwide taxonomic systems now agree that each of the five is a separate species based on a 2013 study that described their different genetics and morphologies.

Adults of the nominate subspecies R. l. longirostris have dull gray-brown upperparts with darker centers to the feathers.

[13] The mangrove rail forages near cover, mostly at low tide and during the morning and early evening.

It has a very diverse diet that includes animal prey such as crustaceans (especially crabs and crayfish), molluscs, leeches, aquatic and terrestrial insects, fish, and amphibians.

The mangrove rail's main vocalization is a "[l]oud clattering 'kek-kek-kek…'" that accelerates and then slows; it makes this call mostly at dawn and dusk.