African Crake
Crecopsis egregia
- Family
- Rails, Gallinules, and Coots (Rallidae)
- Order
- Gruiformes
Overview
The African crake (Crecopsis egregia) is a small- to medium-size ground-living bird in the rail family, found in most of central to southern Africa. It is seasonally common in most of its range other than the rainforests and areas that have low annual rainfall. This crake is a partial migrant, moving away from the equator as soon as the rains provide sufficient grass cover to allow it to breed elsewhere. There have been a few records of vagrant birds reaching Atlantic islands.
Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Range and habitat
Sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal eastward to Kenya and southward to northern and eastern South Africa, except in driest areas.
Range description: AviList Global Avian Checklist.
Countries
- Angola
- Benin
- Botswana
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Cameroon
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Côte d'Ivoire
- DR Congo
- Eswatini
- Ethiopia
- Gabon
- Gambia
- Ghana
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Kenya
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Malawi
- Mali
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Nigeria
- Republic of the Congo
- Rwanda
- Sao Tome and Principe
- Sierra Leone
- South Africa
- Spain
- Tanzania
- Togo
- Uganda
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Sources and further reading
- Wikipedia: African crake
- eBird: sightings, maps and photos
- xeno-canto: sound recordings
- Birds of the World: full species account (subscription)
- BirdLife DataZone: status and threats
- IUCN Red List (threat status)
- AviList global checklist (taxonomy)
Last updated September 29, 2026.
