Corn Crake ( Crex crex, family: Rallidae)

Birds & Birding in the Kruger National Park South Africa. In Roberts 6 this bird was called Corncrake

corn crake kruger national park birds The Corn Crake (Latin name Crex crex) is described in Roberts Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition. This bird has a unique Roberts number of 211 and you will find a full description of this bird on page 325 also a picture of the Corn Crake on page 320. The Corn Crake belongs to the family of birds classified as Rallidae. According to the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology the Corn Crake is also known by these other names: European Corn Crake.

In the previous edition of Roberts (ie 6th edition) the Corn Crake was called the Corncrake

The map of the Kruger you see on this page shows the areas (coloured orange) where this bird has been identified. The basic information was provided by the Avian Demographic Unit based at UCT and I created the maps from that information ... the green dots show the locations of the various Kruger National Park Rest Camps

The Corn Crake is neither Endemic or near Endemic to the Kruger National Park. It is however a rare summer resident

In terms of distribution of the Corn Crake in the Kruger National Park you may not see it in all areas. Corn Crake has been recorded in only 1 sections of the arbitrary Kruger Park regions I selected.

Identification assistance for this avian species ...

The Corn Crake is a bird about the same size as a starling. The height of the Corn Crake is about 30 cms and its weight is about 150 gms

The male and female Corn Crake have the same plumage and colours

  • Head is brown.
  • Eye is brown.
  • Bill is brown.
  • Throat is grey.
  • Back is brown, black.
  • Legs are grey.

This bird has normally proportioned leg length.

Main diet items for this bird ...

The Corn Crake feeds on the ground mainly

Invertebrates

Seeds

Breeding and nesting habits for this bird ...

The Corn Crake takes on more than a single mate (it is bigamous).

The nesting habit of Corn Crake is extra limital

Habitat and flocking behaviour for this bird ...

Names of this avian species in other languages ...

Xhosa ... Unknown

Zulu ... Unknown

Afrikaans ...Kwartelkoning

German ... Wachtelknig

Portuguese ... Codornizo-euroasitico

French ... Rle des gents

Dutch ... Kwartelkoning

First bird in list | Previous bird viewed | Next KNP bird | Last bird in list

For in-depth birding information please refer to these authoritative avian references ...

Robert's 7th edition number ... 211

The main reference source for this data was "Roberts - Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition" . Other references were "Newmans Birds of the Kruger Park" by Keith Newman published circa 1980 . Names in foreign languages were obtained from the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town website , www.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za