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Corn Crake (Crex crex) — photo 1 of 5
© Константин Селивёрстов cc-by

Rails and coots · Cranes and rails

Corn Crake

Crex crex

Voice

Song

Robert Petersen

1:02

Song

Robert Petersen

0:37

Song

Max Karlsson

0:14

How to recognize it

  • Medium-sized rail, larger than a quail or blackbird; compact, flattened body

  • Brown-black upperparts with buff streaks; chestnut wing coverts, pale flesh bill

  • Flushes reluctantly, low weak flight over short distances; legs dangling

  • Loud repetitive call: krek krek, often from hidden tall grass

About the species

The corn crake is a shy, hard-to-see inhabitant of tall grass. Up close it looks compact and short-winged, and in flight it is more memorable for its awkward, low escape than for any graceful shape.

Most people notice it first by the male’s call, a harsh, repeated “krek-krek” that carries a long way and is especially active at night. Outside the breeding season it stays quiet, slips through cover quickly, and when alarmed usually prefers to run rather than fly far.

In spring and summer it uses damp meadows, hayfields, overgrown crops, and other grassy places with plenty of cover. It feeds mainly on insects, worms, slugs, and snails, along with seeds and green plant parts, and spends the winter in Africa in grassy savannas.

Did you know?

  • Heard, never seen

    Barely larger than a thrush, the corncrake slips through an entire breeding season without being seen — only its voice gives it away.

  • Rasp carries past a mile

    The corncrake's rasp carries more than 1.6 km — for rivals it says "stay away," for females, "come closer."

  • Feeds chicks bite by bite from the bill

    For the first few days, corncrake parents keep prey in the bill — holding a caterpillar or spider while the chicks peck it apart bit by bit.

Where to find

  • On wet tall meadows, ditch banks, and overgrown vacant lots — at dusk it gives itself away with a harsh “krek-krek” from deep in the grass.

  • Along the edges of abandoned hayfields and weedy clearings — look for short darting runs in cover and a sudden flush almost under your feet.

  • Beside sedge, reed, and rush thickets at pond or canal margins — the male often calls from a low tussock or from behind a shrub.

  • In city-edge clover, alfalfa, or rank grass fields — easiest to notice early in the morning, feeding low to the ground.

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Sources