Crake

Let’s go through crake meaning! Crake, any of numerous marsh birds in the Rallidae family (order Gruiformes), generally any small rail with a short and conical bill. The name is primarily European, but it can be applied to rails of this type in the New World. Porzana (13 species) is the most widespread genus, with the spotted crake (P. porzana) found in Europe and eastward to Mongolia; in winter, it reaches southern Asia and northern Africa. It is a brown bird that measures 25 cm (10 inches) in length and has a light-spotted breast and a buffy undertail. The sora, or Carolina rail, is its New World counterpart (P. carolina). The sora is approximately 23 cm (9 inches) long, greyish brown with black on the face and throat, and has a short yellow bill.

Other Porzana species include Baillon's crake (P. pusilla), which can be found in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand; the spotless crake (P. tabuensis), which can be found from Australia to the Philippines; and the little crake (P. parva), which is a relatively common Eurasian form.

The corncrake, or land rail (Crex crex), is a slightly larger brown bird from Europe and Asia that migrates south to Africa. It has a stout bill and reddish wings in flight. The black crake of Africa (Limnocorax flavirostra) is a 20-centimetre- (8-inch-) long black bird with a green bill and pink legs. It is less mysterious than most. Pygmy crakes (Sarothrura species), which are about 14 cm (6 inches) long and live in swampy African forests, are very secretive. Laterallus species are among the other New World crakes (including the black rail, L. jamaicensis).

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In this article, we are going to discuss crake meaning and gruiformes.

Kosrae crake

The Kosrae crake, also known as the Kusaie Island crake (Zapornia monasa), is an extinct bird in the Rallidae family. It happened on the Caroline Islands' islands of Kosrae and possibly Ponape in the south-western Pacific. It preferred coastal swamps and marshland with taro plants as its habitat (Colocasia esculenta).

Description

Heinrich von Kittlitz discovered it in 1827. Its plumage was described by Von Kittlitz as "general black with bluish gloss." The quills were a darker shade of brown. The chin and the centre of the throat were both browns. Its tail was brownish-black on the outside. White spots can be seen on the undertail coverts. The inner wing coverts were brownish with white spots. The first primary's outer edges were a dull brown. The eyes, legs, and feet were all reddish. The bill was dark in colour. It was about 18 cm long. There is some debate about its ability to fly. The carpometacarpi were presumed to be flightless based on X-ray measurements.

Extinction

The Kosrae crake is only known from two specimens collected by von Kittlitz in the swamps of Kosrae in December 1827. The two skins are now housed in Saint Petersburg's Russian Academy of Sciences. Its extinction is similar to the disappearance of the Kosrae starling (another extinct species from Kosrae). Von Kittlitz described this bird as rare even in 1828. The German ornithologist Otto Finsch failed to find this bird on his expedition in 1880, and the American Museum of Natural History's Whitney South Seas Expedition in 1931 also failed to find it on a survey after that species. They were apparently victims of rats that had overrun Kosrae after escaping from missionary and whaling vessels that had collided on Kosrae's beach.

Black Crake

A small, pudgy blackish waterbird with reddish eyes, a yellowish bill, and distinctive pink-red legs. The immature has browner legs and a duller bill. It scuttles along the edges of swamps and other bodies of water, preferring to forage on reedbeds and emergent vegetation. It walks tentatively with its head lowered, picking and probing for insects, plant matter, and other food, as do most crakes. The call is an odd, wheezy, bubbling, and chattering “cheeew-t-t-t-treew, t-t-t-t-treew.”

Diet and Nutrition of Black Crakes 

They eat aquatic vertebrates and invertebrates such as worms, crustaceans, mollusks, insect adults and larvae, tadpoles, small frogs, and small fish. They may eat heron and weaver eggs and nestlings. They feed on aquatic plant seeds and parts, as well as the carcasses of small birds, crabs, and crayfish.

Population Threats 

Within their African range, black crakes are common and widespread. The only threat to the Black crake in the region is hunting for food and use in traditional medicine in Malawi and Nigeria. Because this species is reliant on wetlands, populations in areas near agricultural development are threatened by water contamination. Mammals, birds, and reptiles all prey on eggs and nestlings.

Where can Black Crakes be found?

The Black crake is a sub-Saharan African species that is not found in the deserts of South West and North East Africa. This bird prefers the dense undergrowth of wet clearings in wooded areas and the grassy marshes of open areas in freshwater habitats. This species prefers still and flowing inland freshwaters such as ponds, lakes, reservoirs, and seasonal pans, as well as temporarily flooded areas beside rivers that are preferably fringed with rank grass, sedges, papyrus, reed beds, swampy thickets, bushes, or other vegetation. These birds require tangled vegetation for protection, roosting, and nesting. They may migrate seasonally in areas of their range where there is drought.

African Crake 

The African crake (Crecopsis egregia) is a small to medium-sized ground-living bird in the rail family that can be found throughout most of central and southern Africa. Except for rainforests and areas with low annual rainfall, it is seasonal in most of its range. This crake is a partial migrant, leaving the equator as soon as the rains provide enough grass cover for it to breed elsewhere. There have been a few reports of vagrant birds making their way to Atlantic islands. This species nests in a wide range of grassland types, as well as agricultural land with tall crops.

The African crake is a smallish crake with brown-streaked blackish upperparts and bluish-grey underparts, as well as black-and-white barring on the flanks and belly. It has a short red bill, red eyes, and a white line that runs from the bill to above the eye. It is smaller and has an eye stripe than the corn crake, which is also lighter-plumaged. The African crake has a variety of calls, the most distinctive of which is a series of rapid grating krrr notes. It is active during the day and territorial on both breeding and non-breeding grounds; the male has a threat display and may fight at territory borders. The nest is a shallow cup of grass leaves built in a depression under a tussock of grass or a small bush.

After about 14 days, the 3–11 eggs hatch, and the black, downy precocial chicks fledge after four to five weeks. The African crake feeds on a variety of invertebrates, as well as small frogs and fish, as well as plant material, particularly grass seeds. It can be eaten by large birds of prey, snakes, or mammals, including humans, and it can also be a host for parasites. Although it may be temporarily displaced by grassland burning or permanently displaced by agriculture, wetland drainage, or urbanisation, its large range and population mean that it is not considered threatened.

Voice of African Crake

This species, like other rails, has a diverse range of vocalisations. The territorial and advertising call of the male is a series of rapid grating krrr notes repeated two or three times per second for several minutes. It is most commonly administered during the breeding season, usually early or late in the day, but it can also be administered after dark or before dawn. When advertising, the male stands upright with his neck extended, but he will also call when pursuing intruders on the ground or in flight.

Both sexes make a sharp, loud kip call as an alarm or during territorial interactions, adopting a similar posture to the advertising call. Once breeding begins, the birds become much quieter, but territorial birds resume the kip call during the non-breeding season, especially when African crakes are present in large numbers. A wheezy kraaa is associated with threat displays and copulation; the human impersonation of this call can bring a rail to within 10 metres (33 ft). Young chicks make a soft wheeeez call, while older chicks cheep.

The rasping advertising call is readily distinguished from the hwitt-hwitt-hwitt of spotted crake, the monotonous clockwork tak-tak-tak-tak-tak of striped crake, or the quick-quick of Baillon's crake. The corncrake is silent in the region of Africa.

Feeding

Invertebrates such as earthworms, gastropods, mollusks, and the adults and larvae of insects such as termites, ants, beetles, and grasshoppers are eaten by the African crake. Small frogs and fish, as well as vertebrate prey, may be taken. Plant material, particularly grass seeds, but also green shoots, leaves, and other seeds, is consumed. The crake forages for food both inside and outside of vegetation, picking insects and seeds from the ground, turning over leaf litter, or digging with its bill in soft or very dry ground. It will chase down faster-moving prey, reach up to take food from plants, and wade into the water to pluck food items.

Crop plants such as rice, maize, and peas are occasionally eaten by this bird, but it is not an agricultural pest species. It forages alone, in pairs, or family groups, and sometimes with other grassland birds like great snipes, blue quails, and corn crakes. Chicks are primarily fed animal food. Grit, like other rails, is swallowed to aid in the breakdown of food in the stomach.

Predators and parasites

Leopards, servals, cats, black-headed herons, dark chanting goshawks, African hawk-eagles, and Wahlberg's eagles are among the predators. A boomslang kidnapped newly hatched chicks in South Africa. When startled, an African crake will leap vertically into the air before fleeing, a strategy thought to help it avoid snakes or terrestrial mammals.

This species' parasites include ticks of the Ixodidae family and a feather mite, Metanalges elongatus, subspecies M. e. curtus. The mite's nominate form can be found thousands of kilometres away in New Caledonia.