Corn Crake or Corncrake
The Corn Crake (Crex crex) or Corncrakes are related to moorhens, coots and rails but differ from most members of the family because they live on dry land. They are very secretive, spending most of their time hidden in tall vegetation, making their presence known only through their rasping call. In flight their bright chestnut wings and trailing legs are unmistakable.
Distribution:
They breed across Europe and western Asia, migrating to Africa in winter, nesting and rearing their young in tall grass or herbaceous vegetation, such as nettles, cow parsley or yellow flag (iris). Sometimes they will use standing crops of oats and barley in late summer, after the hay fields have been mown.
They are in steep decline across most of their range because modern farming practices mean that nests and birds are destroyed by mowing or harvesting before breeding is finished.
Description:
Adults have mainly brown heavily spotted upperparts, blue-grey head and neck, and reddish streaked flanks. They have a short bill. In flight they show chestnut wings and long dangling legs.
Immature birds are similar, but the blue-grey is replaced by buff. The downy chicks are black, as with all rails.
Corn Crakes are very secretive in the breeding season, and are then mostly heard far more often than they are seen.
Diet:
Insects and seeds.
Song / Call:
A rasping, repetitive, monotonous 'crek-crek' called out mainly at night. . It sounds like two notched sticks being rubbed together.
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