Corn crake
Corn crake | |
---|---|
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Gruiformes |
Family: | Rallidae |
Genus: | Crex Bechstein, 1803 |
Species: | C. crex
|
Binomial name | |
Crex crex | |
Range of C. crex Breeding Passage Non-breeding Extant & Reintroduced (breeding)
| |
Synonyms[2] | |
|
The corn crake, corncrake or landrail (Crex crex) is a bird in the
The corn crake's breeding
Although numbers have declined steeply in western Europe, this bird is classed as
Taxonomy
The
Corn crakes were first described by
Description
The corn crake is a medium-sized rail, 27–30 cm (11–12 in) long with a wingspan of 42–53 cm (17–21 in). Males weigh 165 g (5.8 oz) on average and females 145 g (5.1 oz). The adult male has the crown of its head and all of its upperparts brown-black in colour, streaked with buff or grey. The wing coverts are a distinctive chestnut colour with some white bars. The face, neck and breast are blue-grey, apart from a pale brown streak from the base of the bill to behind the eye, the belly is white, and the flanks, and undertail are barred with chestnut and white. The strong bill is flesh-coloured, the iris is pale brown, and the legs and feet are pale grey. Compared to the male, the female has warmer-toned upperparts and a narrower duller eye streak. Outside the breeding season, the upperparts of both sexes become darker and the underparts less grey. The juvenile is like the adult in appearance, but has a yellow tone to its upperparts, and the grey of the underparts is replaced with buff-brown. The chicks have black down, as with all rails. While there are no subspecies, all populations show great individual variation in colouring, and the birds gradually become paler and greyer towards the east of the range. Adults undergo a complete moult after breeding, which is normally finished by late August or early September, before migration to south eastern Africa. There is a pre-breeding partial moult prior to the return from Africa, mainly involving the plumage of the head, body and tail. Young birds have a head and body moult about five weeks after hatching.[11]
The corn crake is
Voice
On the breeding grounds, the male corn crake's advertising call is a loud, repetitive, grating krek krek normally delivered from a low perch with the bird's head and neck almost vertical and its bill wide open. The call can be heard from 1.5 km (0.93 mi) away, and serves to establish the breeding territory, attract females, and challenge intruding males. Slight differences in vocalisations mean that individual males can be distinguished by their calls. Early in the season, the call is given almost continuously at night, and often during the day, too.[11] It may be repeated more than 20,000 times a night, with a peak between midnight and 3 am.[12] The call has evolved to make a singing male's location clear, as this species hides in vegetation.[13] The frequency of calling reduces after a few weeks but may intensify again near the end of the laying period before falling away towards the end of the breeding season. To attract males, mechanical imitations of their call can be produced by rubbing two pieces of wood or ribs, one of them with notches,[14] or by flicking a credit card against a comb or zip-fastener.[12][15] The male also has a growling call, given with the bill shut and used during aggressive interactions.[11]
The female corn crake may give a call that is similar to that of the male; it also has a distinctive barking sound, similar in rhythm to the main call but without the grating quality.[16] The female also has a high-pitched cheep call, and a oo-oo-oo sound to call the chick. The chicks make a quiet peeick-peeick contact call, and a chirp used to beg for food.[11] Because of the difficulty in seeing this species, it is usually censused by counting males calling between 11 pm and 3 am;[17] the birds do not move much at night, whereas they may wander up to 600 m (660 yd) during the day, which could lead to double-counting if monitored then.[18] Identifying individual males suggests that just counting calling birds underestimates the true count by nearly 30%, and the discrepancy is likely to be greater, since only 80% of males may call at all on a given night.[19] The corn crake is silent in Africa.[20]
Distribution and habitat
The corn crake breeds from Ireland east through Europe to central Siberia. Although it has vanished from much of its historic range, this bird was once found in suitable habitats in Eurasia everywhere between latitudes 41°N and 62°N.[21] There is also a sizable population in western China,[22] but this species nests only rarely in northern Spain and in Turkey. Old claims of breeding in South Africa are incorrect, and result from misidentification of eggs in a museum collection which are actually those of the African rail.
The corn crake winters mainly in Africa, from the
This crake migrates to Africa along two main routes: a western route through Morocco and Algeria, and a more important
The corn crake is mainly a lowland species, but breeds up to 1,400 m (4,600 ft) altitude in the
When wintering in Africa, the corn crake occupies dry grassland and savanna habitats, occurring in vegetation 30–200 cm (0.98–6.56 ft) tall, including seasonally burnt areas and occasionally sedges or reed beds. It is also found on fallow and abandoned fields, uncut grass on airfields, and the edges of crops. It occurs at up to at least 1,750 m (5,740 ft) altitude in South Africa.[11] Each bird stays within a fairly small area.[24] Although it sometimes occurs with the African crake, that species normally prefers moister and shorter grassland habitats than does the corn crake.[28] On migration, the corn crake may also occur in wheatfields and around golf courses.[11]
Behaviour
The corn crake is a difficult bird to see in its breeding sites, usually being hidden by vegetation, but will sometimes emerge into the open. Occasionally, individuals may become very trusting; for five consecutive summers, an individual crake on the Scottish island of Tiree entered a kitchen to feed on scraps, and, in 1999, a wintering Barra bird would come for poultry feed once the chickens had finished.[12] In Africa, it is more secretive than the African crake, and, unlike its relative, it is rarely seen in the open, although it occasionally feeds on tracks or road sides. The corn crake is most active early and late in the day, after heavy rain and during light rain. Its typical flight is weak and fluttering, although less so than that of the African crake. For longer flights, such as migration, it has a steadier, stronger action with legs drawn up. It walks with a high-stepping action, and can run swiftly through grass with its body held horizontal and laterally flattened. It will swim if essential. When flushed by a dog, it will fly less than 50 m (160 ft), frequently landing behind a bush or thicket, and then crouch on landing. If disturbed in the open, this crake will often run in a crouch for a short distance, with its neck stretched forward, then stand upright to watch the intruder. When captured it may feign death, recovering at once if it sees a way out.[11]
The corn crake is solitary on the wintering grounds, where each bird occupies 4.2–4.9 ha (10–12 acres) at one time, although the total area used may be double that, since an individual may move locally due to flooding, plant growth, or grass cutting. Flocks of up to 40 birds may form on migration, sometimes associating with common quails. Migration takes place at night, and flocks resting during the day may aggregate to hundreds of birds at favoured sites.[11] The ability to migrate is innate, not learned from adults. Chicks raised from birds kept in captivity for ten generations were able to migrate to Africa and return with similar success to wild-bred young.[29]
Breeding
Until 1995, it was assumed that the corn crake is monogamous, but it transpires that a male may have a shifting home range, and mate with two or more females, moving on when laying is almost complete. The male's territory can vary from 3 to 51 ha (7.4 to 126.0 acres), but averages 15.7 ha (39 acres). The female has a much smaller range, averaging only 5.5 ha (14 acres). A male will challenge an intruder by calling with his wings drooped and his head pointing forward. Usually the stranger moves off; if it stays, the two birds square up with heads and necks raised and the wings touching the ground. They then run around giving the growling call and lunging at each other. A real fight may ensue, with the birds leaping at each other and pecking, and sometimes kicking. Females play no part in defending the territory.
The female may be offered food by the male during courtship. He has a brief courtship display in which the neck is extended and the head held down, the tail is fanned, and the wings are spread with the tips touching the ground. He will then attempt to approach the female from behind, and then leap on her back to copulate. The nest is typically in grassland, sometimes in safer sites along a hedge, or near an isolated tree or bush, or in overgrown vegetation. Where grass is not tall enough at the start of the season, the first nest may be constructed in herby or marsh vegetation, with the second brood in hay.[11] The second nest may also be at a higher altitude that the first, to take advantage of the later-developing grasses further up a hill.[30] The nest, well hidden in the grass, is built in a scrape or hollow in the ground. It is made of woven coarse dry grass and other plants, and lined with finer grasses.[31] Although nest construction is usually described as undertaken by the female,[23] a recent aviary study found that in the captive population the male always built the nest.[32]
The nest is 12–15 cm (4.7–5.9 in) in diameter and 3–4 cm (1.2–1.6 in) deep. The clutch is 6–14, usually 8–12 eggs; these are oval, slightly glossy, creamy or tinted with green, blue or grey, and blotched red-brown. They average 37 mm × 26 mm (1.5 in × 1.0 in) and weigh about 13–16 g (0.46–0.56 oz),
Nest success in undisturbed sites is high, at 80–90%, but much lower in fertilised meadows and on arable land. The method and timing of mowing is crucial; mechanized mowing can kill 38–95% of chicks in a given site, and losses average 50% of first brood chicks and somewhat less than 40% of second brood chicks.[11] The influence of weather on chick survival is limited; although chick growth is faster in dry or warm weather, the effects are relatively small. Unlike many precocial species, chicks are fed by their mother to a greater or lesser extent until they become independent, and this may cushion them from adverse conditions. The number of live chicks hatched is more important than the weather, with lower survival in large broods.[34] The annual adult survival rate is under 30%,[33][35] although some individuals may live for 5–7 years.[36]
Feeding
The corn crake is
Predators and parasites
Predators on the breeding grounds include
The widespread fluke Prosthogonimus ovatus, which lives in the oviducts of birds, has been recorded in the corn crake,[40] as have the parasitic worm Plagiorchis elegans,[41] the larvae of parasitic flies,[42] and hard ticks of the genera Haemaphysalis and Ixodes.[43]
During the reintroduction of corn crakes to England in the 2003 breeding season, enteritis and ill health in pre-release birds was due to bacteria of a pathogenic Campylobacter species. Subsequently, microbiology tests were done to detect infected individuals and to find the source of the bacteria in their environment.[44]
Status
Until 2010, despite a breeding range estimated at 12,400,000 km2 (4,800,000 sq mi), the corn crake was classified as
The breeding corn crake population had begun to decline in the 19th century, but the process gained pace after World War II.[46] The main cause of the steep declines in much of Europe is the loss of nests and chicks from early mowing. Haymaking dates have moved forward in the past century due to faster crop growth, made possible by land drainage and the use of fertilisers, and the move from manual grass-cutting using scythes to mechanical mowers, at first horse-drawn and later pulled by tractors. Mechanisation also means that large areas can be cut quickly, leaving the crake with no alternative sites to raise either a first brood if suitable habitat has gone, or a replacement brood if the first nest is destroyed.[39] The pattern of mowing, typically in a circular pattern from the outside of a field to its centre, gives little chance of escape for the chicks, which are also exposed to potential animal predators. Adults can often escape the mowers, although some incubating females sit tight on the nest, with fatal results.[11]
Most European countries have taken steps to conserve the corn crake and produce national management policies; there is also an overall European action plan.[50] The focus of conservation effort is to monitor populations and ecology and to improve survival, principally through changing the timing and method of hay harvesting.[30] Later cutting gives time for breeding to be completed, and leaving uncut strips at the edges of fields and cutting from the centre outwards reduces the casualties from mowing.[11] Implementing these changes is predicted to stop the population decline if the measures are applied on a sufficiently large scale.[51] Reduction of illegal hunting, and protection in countries where hunting is still allowed, are also conservation aims.[30] Reintroduction of the corn crake is being attempted in England, and breeding sites are scheduled for protection in many other countries.[52] Where breeding sites impinge on urban areas, there are cost implications, estimated in one German study at several million euros per corn crake.[53] The corn crake does not appear to be seriously threatened on its wintering grounds and may benefit from deforestation, which creates more open habitats.[28]
In culture
Most rails are secretive wetland birds that have made little cultural impression, but as a formerly common farmland bird with a loud nocturnal call that sometimes led to disturbed sleep for rural dwellers, the corn crake has acquired a variety of folk names and some commemoration in literature.[12]
Names
The favoured name for this species among naturalists has changed over the years, with "landrail" and variants of "corncrake" being preferred at various times. "Crake gallinule" also had a period of popularity between 1768 and 1813.[54] The originally Older Scots "cornecrake" was popularised by Thomas Bewick, who used this term in his 1797 A History of British Birds.[55] Other Scots names include "corn scrack" and "quailzie"; the latter term, like "king of the quail",[55] "grass quail",[56] the French "roi de caille", and the German "Wachtelkönig" refer to the association with the small gamebird.[12] Another name, "daker", has been variously interpreted as onomatopoeic,[57] or derived from the Old Norse ager-hoene, meaning "cock of the field";[55] variants include "drake", "drake Hen" and "gorse drake".[58]
In literature
Corn crakes are the subject of three stanzas of the seventeenth century poet
Unhappy Birds! What does it boot
To build below the Grass' Root;
When Lowness is unsafe as Hight,
And Chance o'ertakes, what scapeth spight?
John Clare, the nineteenth-century English poet based in Northamptonshire, wrote "The Landrail", a semi-comic piece which is primarily about the difficulty of seeing corn crakes – as opposed to hearing them. In the fourth verse he exclaims: "Tis like a fancy everywhere/A sort of living doubt". Clare wrote about corn crakes in his prose works too, and his writings help to clarify the distribution of this rail when it was far more widespread than now.[60]
The Finnish poet Eino Leino also wrote about the bird in his poem "Nocturne".[61]
The corncrake's song rings in my ears,
above the rye a full moon sails
The proverbial use of the corn crake's call to describe someone with a grating or unmelodious voice is illustrated in the quotation "thanks to a wee woman with a voice like a corncrake who believed she was an apprentice angel".[62] This usage dates from at least the first half of the nineteenth century,[63] and continues through to the present.[64]
In music
In The Pogues "Lullaby of London" Shane MacGowan uses the corncrake's cry as a motif to illustrate his alienation in the city, he sings:
Though there is no lonesome corncrake's cry
Or sorrow and delight
You can hear the cars
And the shouts from bars
And the laughter and the fights[65]
In The Decemberists "The Hazards of Love 2 (Wager All)" Colin Meloy references the corn crake's call, singing: "And we'll lie until the corn crake crows."[66]
References
- ^ . Retrieved 19 November 2021.
- ^ Stone, Witmer (1894). "A Review of the Old World Rallinae". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 46: 130–149.
- ^ Taylor & van Perlo 2000, p. 30
- ^ Livezey 1998, p. 2098
- ^ Linnaeus, Carolus (1758). Systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio decima, reformata (in Latin). Vol. 1. Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. p. 153.
- .
- ^ Sclater, Philip Lutley (1896). "Remarks on the divergencies between the "Rules for naming Animals" of the German Zoological Society and the Stricklandian Code of Nomenclature". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 54 (2): 306–319.
- ^ Wood, John George (1855). The Illustrated Natural History. London: G. Routledge. p. 302.
- ISBN 0-19-852685-7.
- ^ "Bustards to Limpkin". IOC World Bird List. International Ornithologists' Union. Archived from the original on 22 May 2011. Retrieved 5 June 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Taylor & van Perlo 2000, pp. 320–327
- ^ ISBN 0-7011-6907-9.
- doi:10.1163/1570756041445218. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2013-12-03.
- ^ Boswall, J. (1998). "Answering the calls of nature: human mimicry of avian voice" (PDF). Transactions of Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society. 92: 10–11. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-12-01.
- JSTOR 25532979.
- S2CID 46446040.
- ISBN 978-0-12-095831-3.
- ^ Hudson, Anne V.; Stowe, Tim J.; Aspinall, Simon J. (1990). "Status and distribution of Corncrakes in Britain in 1988" (PDF). British Birds. 83 (5): 173–187.
- ^ Peake, T.M.; McGregor, P.K. (2001). "Corncrake Crex crex census estimates: a conservation application of vocal individuality" (PDF). Animal Biodiversity and Conservation. 24 (1): 81–90.
- ISBN 1-86872-735-1.
- ^ a b Green, Rhys E.; Rocamora, Gerard; Schäffer, Norbert (1997). "Populations, ecology and threats to the Corncrake Crex crex in Europe" (PDF). Vogelwelt. 118: 117–134. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-01-12.
- ^ a b c d Bräunlich, Axel; Rank, Michael (2001). Schäffer, N.; Mammen, U. (eds.). Notes on the occurrence of the Corncrake (Crex crex) in Asia and in the Pacific region (PDF). Proceedings International Corncrake Workshop 1998. Hilpoltstein, Germany. pp. 10–13. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-01-12.
- ^ ISBN 0-19-854099-X.
- ^ a b Pitches, Adrian (2013). "Corn Crakes—a Scottish conservation success story". British Birds. 106 (5): 241–242.
- ^ "Corncrake". New Zealand Birds Online.
- doi:10.5962/p.309784.
- .
- ^ a b Taylor & van Perlo 2000, pp. 316–320
- ^ Pain, Debbie; Green, Rhys; Clark, Nigel (2011). "Bird on the edge: can the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Eurynorhynchus pygmeus be saved?" (PDF). BirdingASIA. 15: 26–35. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-04-02. Retrieved 2013-03-03.
- ^ a b c d "Species factsheet: Crex crex". BirdLife International. 2015. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
- ^ Seebohm, Henry (1896). Coloured Figures of the Eggs of British Birds. Edited posthumously by Richard Bowdler Sharpe. Sheffield: Pawson & Brailsford. p. 83.
- ^ Graham, Jamie (2009). "Corn Crake pair-bonding and nesting behaviour" (PDF). British Birds. 102 (4): 217.
- ^ a b Robinson, R.A. (2005). "Corncrake Crex crex (Linnaeus, 1758)". BirdFacts: profiles of birds occurring in Britain & Ireland (BTO Research Report 407). Thetford: BTO. Retrieved 12 June 2011.
- .
- .
- ISBN 978-1-4053-4589-7.
- JSTOR 4076773.
- ^ Taylor & van Perlo 2000, pp. 39–41
- ^ a b c d Koffijberg & Schaffer 2006, p. 21
- ^ Rothschild, Miriam; Clay, Theresa (1953). Fleas, Flukes and Cuckoos. A Study of Bird Parasites. London: Collins. pp. 204–205.
- ^ Yildirimhan, Hikmet S.; Bursey, Charles R.; Altunel, F. Naci (2011). "Helminth parasites of the Balkan green lizard, Lacerta trilineata Bedriaga 1886, from Bursa, Turkey" (PDF). Turkish Journal of Zoology. 35 (3): 1–17. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-08-19. Retrieved 2011-06-18.
- S2CID 21767567.
- PMID 14163959.
- S2CID 45524917.
- ^ van den Berg, Arnoud B. (1999). "European news 45". British Birds. 92 (6): 278–300.
- ^ Koffijberg & Schaffer 2006, p. 6
- ^ Donaghy, A. (2007). "Corncrakes: a lot done, more to do". Wings. 46: 26–27.
- ^ Beeton, Isabella (1861). The Book of Household Management. London: S.O. Beeton. p. 210.
- ISBN 978-0-00-730732-6.
- ^ International Single Species Action Plan for the Conservation of the Corncrake, June 2006.
- .
- ISBN 978-1-4081-2735-3.
- ^ Matauschek, Jan Marcus (2005). "The impact of endangered species law on the real estate development process explored with cost-benefit analysis: The case of the corncrake in Hamburg/Germany" (PDF). German Working Papers in Law and Economics. 2005 (Paper 7): 1–30.
- ^ Lockwood 1984, p. 93
- ^ ISBN 1-84183-025-9.
- ^ Coward, Thomas Alfred (1930). The Birds of the British Isles and their Eggs. London: Frederick Warne. p. 326.
- ^ Lockwood 1984, p. 52
- ^ Lockwood 1984, p. 55
- ISBN 978-1-4058-3283-0.
- ISBN 978-0-691-13539-7.
- ^ Leino, Eino. "Nocturne" (in Finnish). Bosley, Keith (translator). Kainuun Eino Leino [Eino Leino Society]. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
- ISBN 1-901557-07-3.
- ^ Morgan, Sir Thomas Charles; Lady Morgan (1841). The Book Without a Name. Vol. 1. New York: Wiley and Putnam. p. 162.
- ISBN 0-7432-6193-3.
- ^ "Lullaby Of London Lyrics And Chords". Irish folk songs. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
- ^ "The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love". The Decemberists. Archived from the original on 2018-12-01. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
Cited texts
- Koffijberg, Kees; Schaffer, Norbert (2006). International single species action plan for the conservation of the Corncrake Crex crex (PDF). Bonn, Germany: Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) and Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) (CMS Technical Series & AEWA Technical Series 14 & 9).
- Livezey, Bradley C. (1998). "A phylogenetic analysis of the Gruiformes (Aves) based on morphological characters, with an emphasis on the rails (Rallidae)". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. 353 (1378): 2077–2151. PMC 1692427.
- Lockwood, W.B. (1984). Oxford Book of British Bird Names. Oxford: ISBN 0-19-214155-4.
- Taylor, Barry; van Perlo, Berl (2000). Rails. Robertsbridge, Sussex: Pica. ISBN 1-873403-59-3.
External links
- "Corncrake media". Internet Bird Collection.
- Crex crex in Field Guide: Birds of the World on Flickr
- Feathers of corn crake (Crex crex) Archived 2018-08-19 at the Wayback Machine
- Upon Appleton House, to my Lord Fairfax by Andrew Marvell
- The Landrail by John Clare
- Corn crake species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds
- "Crex crex". Avibase.
- Corn crake photo gallery at VIREO (Drexel University)
- Audio recordings of Corn crake on Xeno-canto.