• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Little Crake - BirdForum Opus

Photo by Pavel
Shabla, Bulgaria, March 2006
Zapornia parva

Porzana parva

Identification

17-19

  • Short straight yellow bill with a red base
  • Green legs with long toes
  • Short tail is barred black, white underneath

Adult males

  • Mainly brown upperparts
  • Slate-grey face and underparts

Females

Female
Photo by Kevin Wade
Laguna Dulce, Málaga, Spain, March 2019
  • Whitish throat
  • Buff underparts
  • Grey only on the face

Immatures are similar to the female but have a white face and breast

The downy chicks are black, as with all rails

Similar Species

Water Rail and Spotted Crake

Distribution

Europe, and western Asia.

Taxonomy

Immature
Photo by Florian Andronache

This is a monotypic species[1].
Placed in genus Porzana by IOC.

Habitat

Reedbeds

Behaviour

Most active at dawn and dusk

Flight

Similar to Water Rail and Spotted Crake

Breeding

The 4-7 eggs are laid in nests built in reeds.

Diet

Diet includes insects and aquatic animals.

They probe with their bill in mud or shallow water, also picking up food by sight.

Vocalisation

References

  1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2017. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2017, with updates to August 2017. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
  2. Wikipedia
  3. Collins Field Guide 5th edition

Recommended Citation

External Links

Search the Gallery using the scientific name:

Search the Gallery using the common name:

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.

Back
Top