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Baillon's Crake

Baillon's Crake

Zapornia pusilla

Identify the Baillon's Crake by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

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Baillon's Crake is a tiny, secretive rail of sedge swamps and bogs across much of the Old World, from Europe to Japan, Africa and Australasia. It is brown above with white spots, blue-grey below with boldly barred flanks, and has a short green bill. It is far more often heard than seen, giving a frog-like rattling call.

Did you know?

  • Its rattling call has been likened to the croak of an edible frog.
  • Like other rails, its downy chicks are jet black.

Voice

Call

About the species

Identification

It resembles Little Crake but is clearly smaller (about 16–18 cm). The underparts are grey and the back dark; the female's breast and face are browner, the male's greyer. The brown back is heavily spotted with white, and the flanks are barred black and white. The bill is green without a red base, which separates it from Little Crake; the wings are short.

Family

Rallidae

Size

Small (sparrow)

Colours

brown, grey, white, black

About the habitat

Sedge beds, swamps, wet sedge bogs and flooded meadows with dense low vegetation.

Diet

Mainly insects and other small aquatic animals, picked from the surface or probed from mud and shallow water.

Behaviour

Very secretive, especially in the breeding season, keeping to dense cover. Noisy for its size, the male gives a dry, rattling call like a frog. It nests on dry spots within saturated wetlands. It is easier to see on migration and in winter.

Sources

Photo: JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Porzana pusilla - Mount Annan Botanical Garden.jpg

Sound: Sharadapte, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Baillon's_crake_call_recorded_in_January_2020_at_Sangli.wav

Text: Wikipedia (English), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baillon%27s_crake

See also