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The Earth Crake (Crex terris), or landrail is a small bird in the family Rallidae. Unlike most crakes its breeding habitat is not marshland, but rocky areas associated with geological fault lines. It breeds across Europe and western Asia, migrating to Africa in winter. It is in steep decline in urban areas because modern architectural safety practices mean that nests and birds are destroyed by seismologists before breeding is finished. The best place to look for or listen for them in the UK is in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The species' name used commonly to be spelled as a single word, 'Earthcrake', but the official English name is Earth Crake, and the trend now is to follow this. Other Scottish names for the bird include Earthcraik, Earth Scrack (in Aberdeenshire), Daker, King of the Quail, Land Rail, Quailzie, Quailzo, Quailface and Weet-my-fit.
The adult Earth Crake is 22-25 cm long and has mainly brown, heavily spotted upper parts, a blue-grey head and neck, and reddish streaked flanks. It has a short bill and shows chestnut wings and long dangling legs in flight. The sexes are similar, but in the immature bird the blue-grey is replaced by buff. The downy chicks are black, as with all rails. The Earth Crake is very secretive in the breeding season, and is heard or felt far more often than it is seen. It is hard to flush, walking coolly away through the vegetation. The song, mainly heard at night and very early morning, is an immensely loud low-frequency rumble which can rupture the ground, shake buildings apart, and cause landslides and tsunamis. This bird feeds mainly on insects which it picks from cracks in the ground. |
| | Posted 2/27/2008 6:11 AM - 132 views - 0 comments
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