Corn Crake

The Corn Crake is a medium-sized, buff-brown rail adapted to dry grassland rather than marshes, setting it apart from most of its relatives. It has warm buff-brown, black-streaked upperparts, a gray face and breast, chestnut wing patches visible in flight, and a short, stout pinkish bill.

Once common across European farmland, it has declined sharply in many regions due to changes in hay-cutting practices, and its loud nocturnal call is now an increasingly rare sound of the countryside.

Key field marks

• Buff-brown, black-streaked upperparts
• Gray face and breast
• Chestnut wing coverts, obvious in flight
• Short, pale, stout bill
• Long pale pinkish legs, trailing in flight

Similar species

The Water Rail has a long red bill and gray underparts and lives in wet reedbeds rather than dry grassland. Other rails lack the Corn Crake's rich chestnut wing patch.

Habitat

Tall, unmown grasslands, hay meadows, and cereal fields, rarely found near water despite belonging to the rail family.

Range and migration

Breeds across Europe and western/central Asia. A long-distance migrant, wintering in sub-Saharan Africa.

Behavior

Extremely secretive, hiding within dense grass and rarely seen even where common.

Voice

The male's repetitive, rasping, far-carrying 'crex-crex' call, given mainly at night during the breeding season, is the source of both its common and scientific names.

Feeding

Forages on the ground for insects, earthworms, snails, and seeds.

Nesting and breeding

Nests on the ground in tall grass, where eggs and chicks are highly vulnerable to mowing machinery, a major factor behind population declines in intensively farmed regions.