Spotted Crake
Spotted Crake ( Porzana porzana )
The Spotted Crake ( Porzana porzana ) is a bird of the family squacco birds. It is smaller than a water rail and is about the size of a choke.
Appearance
Spotted crakes have a body length of about 19 to 22.5 centimeters. Of the water rails they can be most easily distinguished by the short, straight beak. This is yellow with a red base. Fully-grown birds have a predominantly brown body bottom with a blue-gray breast. On the sides you can see a pale yellow stripes. Feathers of the back and the duvets in the middle are black. The body plumage on the top also has many small white spots. The legs of adult birds are greenish in color and have the typical Rails big toes.
Not yet full-grown young birds resemble the adult birds; with them, however, the breast plumage is still brown.
Habitat and distribution area
The distribution area of Tüpfelsumpfhuhns extends from the west and the southwest of Europe to the south of Central Siberia. Individual deposits are found in Spain, Italy and Greece. Furthermore, a closed circulation area ranges from the Crimea to the Caucasus. Individual distribution areas, there is also in Central Asia.
The Spotted Crake breeds in marshes, fens and Seggenbeständen from Europe to central Siberia. The nests are applied to dry sites within this habitat and are well hidden. Most of them are located close to the ground or in a Seggenbütte. Nests have occasionally a roof of leaves. The females lay in the period April to June about eight to 12 eggs of a yellowish color, which also have small reddish brown spots. The chicks have initially a black dress down and are able to fly after about 35 to 42 days.
The wintering areas are in Africa and India.
Food
The spotted crakes looking with their beaks in the mud or in shallow waters for food. This consists mostly of small animals such as insects, worms and snails. They also take delicate plant parts to himself.
Risk & protection status
The Spotted Crake applicable in Germany as critically endangered ( Red List category 1 ). It is a kind of Annex I of the EU Birds Directive ( 79/409/EEC RL ).
The population is estimated for Europe at 120000-260000 breeding pairs. Countries with more than 20,000 breeding pairs are Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. More than 2,000 breeding pairs occur in Estonia, Poland and Romania. In Central Europe the way though is found in all countries, Poland is a breeding pair inventory 2500-3500, however, clearly the distribution area. The total breeding bird population of Central Europe was at the beginning of the 21st century at 4,000 to 6,000 breeding pairs.
The Spotted Crake is one of the species for which a significant area shift is suspected as a result of climate change. A research team that examined the future diffusion trend of birds on the basis of climate models for the UK Environment Agency and the RSPB, assumes that large parts of present-day distribution area will provide the Spotted Crake future no suitable habitats more. The distribution area would shift based on these forecasts significantly to the northeast.