Little Bittern (Ixobrychus minutus)
Little Crake (Zapornia parva)
Usually recognizable by size alone. Distinctly smaller than any congener. Pale wing-panel formed by inner coverts is striking in all plumages, especially in flight. Male with contrasting black and white/buff plumage. Female with dark, but pale fringed back and streaked throat. Immature with streaked, bittern-like plumage, and wing-panel is brown-spotted. Skulky behaviour, and most active at dusk or after dark. Mostly seen in flight when crossing open water. Flight action rapid and clipping, and landing is preceded by short glide.
Sound:Mostly silent except in breeding season. Song is a series of short, deep, frog-like "gorrk", repeated every 2 seconds. Tone is muffled and hollow, but far-carrying. Flight-call a sharp "ki-ke-ke" or a nasal "ke".
Song:
Distribution:
Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)
Ecology:Birdlife ecology
Links:
Observation.org Latest observations
Image search Flickr NB! May give other species
CCSound recording:Creative Commons,www.xeno-canto.org,Jarek Matusiak,http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Differs from Baillon's Crake in long primary projection in all plumages. At least 5 tips of primaries visible behind tertials. Adult birds show red base of bill, but this is sometimes difficult to see and immature may lack this altogether. Male with lead grey underparts, female with grey face and buff underparts. Immature with barred and spotted underparts but less so than immature Baillon's. The crown is also more evenly dark together with dark ear coverts. The species appears slimmer than Baillon's Crake due to longer neck, tail and legs.
Sound:Rich repertoire of calls used freely in breeding season. Male song diagnostic. A loud series of short, nasal ascending "quek" repeated every one and a half seconds or so, before accelerating and descending at the same time to a more guttural voice. Female song with similar short "quek" but with less pure tone and in shorter series (sometimes just one call), immediately followed by a rolling trill.
Male song:
Distribution:
Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)
Ecology:Birdlife ecology
Links:
Observation.org Latest observations
Image search Flickr NB! May give other species
CCCC-photo:Rudo Jureček, Licence,Link.
CC-Photo:Arie en Anneke Kolders, Licence,Link.
CC-Photo:Jorrit Vlot, Licence,Link.