Australian Crake
Porzana fluminea· 秧鸡科(2 photos)
Locations:
Australian Crake
19-23 cm. Dark crake with fine white streaks on olive-brown upperparts; white undertail-coverts. Bill olive-green with red base; eye red; face blackish; throat/breast dark grey; flanks barred black/white; legs green. Juvenile: duller; upperparts spotted white; underparts greyish. Singles, pairs, open companies: ventures from tussocks, reeds on shallow margins of rivers, wetlands, saltmarshes. Wades, swims, walks on floating plants.
- Other names
- Spotted Crake; Australian Crake.
- Similar Species
- Baillon's Crake.
- Voice
- staccato, high-pitched double notes, descending; wheezing; whirring chatterings.
- Habitat
- drying fresh, brackish or salt swamps with cover of water-ribbons; sedges, bullrushes, clumps of rush or tussocks; 'samphire' around saltmarshes, saltfields, salt lakes, inland and coastal.
- Breeding
- Aug.-Jan.; autumn where conditions favourable.
- Nest
- shallow cup, with ramp of trampled material and canopy of grass, rush-stems, etc.; in rushes, water-ribbons; over water.
- Eggs
- 4-5 (6); olive-brown, spotted red-brown and black.
- Range & Status
- Fairly common in se. Aust., especially Murray-Murrumbidgee region; extending far inland when water conditions suitable, e.g. Alice Springs sewage farm. Widespread but uncommon in coastal WA including Kimberley region; scarce in tropical n. Aust. and Tas. Present Kangaroo I. (SA). Dispersive; irruptive; movements influenced by rainfall.
