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Spotted Crake

Spotted Crake

Porzana porzana

Identify the Spotted Crake by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

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The Spotted Crake is a small, secretive rail of shallow marshes and sedge beds across temperate Europe to western Asia that winters in Africa and South Asia. It is brown above with white spots, has a blue-grey breast, barred flanks and a short yellow bill with a red base. It is much more often heard than seen, calling a repetitive, whip-like “hwitt” at night.

Did you know?

  • Its scientific name comes from Venetian words for small rails.
  • Its downy chicks are jet black, like those of other rails.

Voice

Song
Call

About the species

Identification

A short, straight bill with a red base and yellowish tip. The breast is blue-grey, the back brown with dark streaks and white spots, and the flanks barred white; the legs are green and the tail short, with a buff undertail. Females are duller and more spotted, young birds browner. The combination of a short bill, blue-grey breast and white-spotted plumage separates it from other crakes and from Water Rail.

Family

Rallidae

Size

Medium (thrush)

Colours

brown, grey, white, black, yellow

About the habitat

Shallow freshwater marshes, fens, sedge beds and wet meadows with dense emergent vegetation; on migration also flooded fields and vegetated pond edges.

Diet

Omnivorous: aquatic insects, snails, worms, small crustaceans and seeds of marsh plants, picked from shallow water and mud.

Behaviour

Very shy, it moves like a mouse through dense vegetation, coming to the water's edge at dawn and dusk and flicking its tail to show the buff undertail. It swims readily and makes short, low flights. Territorial males call at night in spring with a whip-like note likened to a dripping tap. It nests on dry spots within marsh vegetation. It is easier to see on migration.

Sources

Photo: Noel Reynolds, CC BY 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spotted crake (Porzana porzana) (6830876880).jpg

Sound: Robert Petersen, XC1000572, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/1000572

Sound: Manoj Karingamadathil, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Porzana_fusca_-_Ruddy-breasted_Crake_XC409101.mp3

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_crake

See also