Family:
Baillon’s crake, also called the marsh crake, is a small waterbird with a distinctive upright tail and short wings. Its upperparts are brown, marked with white speckles and dark spots, while the underparts and throat are blue-grey with black-and-white barring along the flanks. The face is brown with a broad blue-grey stripe above the eye, and the crown is brown with black stripes. Its eyes are red, the bill is green, and the legs and feet are also green. Males and females look alike.
It closely resembles the little crake but can be identified by the absence of red at the base of its bill. A very secretive bird, it is more often heard than seen during the breeding season, with its noisy rattling call.
Try our interactive bird identifier
Baillon’s crake primarily feeds on aquatic insects and larvae, including beetles, stoneflies, and mosquitoes, as well as crustaceans, molluscs, small fish, amphibians, plant matter, and seeds.
It forages by probing in mud or shallow water, and also picks prey by sight.
Baillon’s crake has a wide range across eastern Europe, with scattered breeding locations in southern Europe, where it nests in wet sedge marshes and bogs. There are also resident populations in Africa and Australasia. The species migrates to eastern Africa and South Asia for winter.
In Britain, Baillon’s crake was a regular breeder until the late 1800s but was lost due to habitat drainage.
