Little Crake (Zapornia parva)

OTHER NAMES: N/A
Latin Etymology:  Zapornia (anagram of Porzarna) parva ("small")

Adult female Little Crake (Zapornia parva) near Side, Antalya, Turkey - March 2025

Featured Subspecies: N/A
Weight: 35-60g  /  Length: 17-19cm  /  Wingspan: 34-39cm
NO UK STATUS / IUCN Red List: Least Concern

As the name suggests, a small member of the crake family whose range is centred on Eastern Europe and Central Asia, largely migrating to the vicinity of large rivers nearer the equator such as the Nile and the Indus. Unusually for crakes, they are strongly sexually dimorphic, with the males having plumage not dissimilar to a water rail, while the females are more crypically mottled brown. They are an occassional vagrant to the UK.

Related Species:
Order: Gruiformes
Family: Rallidae
Genus: Zapornia
SUBSPECIES: none - monotypic 

 - Sighting Locations -

TURKEY  - Bataklık sutavuğu ("Swamp coot")

 - ANTALYA 2025 TRIP - Four birds seen near Side.

Further Notes: BirdForum Opus, IUCN Red List, RSPB, Wikipedia, Xeno-canto

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Spotted Crake (Porzana porzana)

OTHER NAMES: N/A

Latin Etymology: Porzana (species specific name) porzana (species specific)

Spotted Crake (Porzana porzana) at Birstall Meadows, Leicestershire - August 2012

Featured Subspecies: N/A
Weight: 57-147g  /  Length: 19-22.5cm  /  Wingspan: 37-42cm
UK AMBER LIST / IUCN Red List: Least Concern

Spotted Crakes, unfortunately for the prospective viewer, fall squarely in the middle of the category of birds that are both very rare and very secretive.  Reed-bed species are generally among the most frustrating anyway because they can be feet away from you and you'd never know they are there, but spotted crakes are also by far the rarest of the rails in the UK.  There are only about 70 breeding males in the UK and the number only rises by about 50 in Winter.  While, they have similar habits to Water Rails, if anything my impression was slightly more secretive.  In this particular case the starling sized bird was on the opposite side of a field which obviously does not make it a very good photography subject.  However, if you do get to see one better than these photos (which I did thanks to the kind gentleman who lent me the use of his telescope), they are a rather endearing and pleasantly patterned little bird.  Several years later, I believe I saw a second bird briefly at Oare Marshes in Kent (and it fits with a widely reported showy bird that appeared there a few weeks later) but it wasn't a clear enough view for me to be happy counting it, and I didn't get a photo.

Related Species:
Order: Gruiformes
Family: Rallidae
Genus: Porzana
Subspecies: None - monotypic

 - Sighting Locations -

UNITED KINGDOM - Very rare breeding species (80 males) and vagrant

 - One vagrant bird seen at Birstall Meadows in 2012

Further Notes: BirdForum Opus, IUCN Red List, RSPB, Wikipedia, Xeno-canto .