Corn Crake
Crex crex
- Family
- Rails, Gallinules, and Coots (Rallidae)
- Order
- Gruiformes
Overview
The corn crake, corncrake or landrail (Crex crex) is a bird in the rail family. It breeds in Europe and Asia as far east as western China, and migrates to Africa for the Northern Hemisphere's winter. It is a medium-sized crake with buff- or grey-streaked brownish-black upperparts, chestnut markings on the wings, and blue-grey underparts with rust-coloured and white bars on the flanks and undertail. The strong bill is flesh-toned, the iris is pale brown, and the legs and feet are pale grey.
Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Range and habitat
Breeds British Isles eastward to northwestern China and central Siberia, and southward from central Europe, the Caucasus, Kyrgyzstan, northwestern Xinjiang (northwestern China), and northern Mongolia; winters mainly from eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and southern Tanzania southward to eastern South Africa.
Range description: AviList Global Avian Checklist.
Continents
Countries
- Afghanistan
- Albania
- Algeria
- Armenia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Belarus
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Burundi
- China
- Croatia
- Czechia
- Denmark
- DR Congo
- Egypt
- Estonia
- Eswatini
- Ethiopia
- Finland
- Georgia
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Iran
- Iraq
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- Kenya
- Kosovo
- Kuwait
- Kyrgyzstan
- Latvia
- Lebanon
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malawi
- Mali
- Malta
- Mauritania
- Moldova
- Mongolia
- Montenegro
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- North Macedonia
- Norway
- Oman
- Palestine
- Poland
- Qatar
- Republic of the Congo
- Romania
- Russia
- Rwanda
- Saudi Arabia
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Somalia
- South Africa
- Spain
- Sudan
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Syria
- Tajikistan
- Tanzania
- Tunisia
- Turkey
- Turkmenistan
- Uganda
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Uzbekistan
- Western Sahara
- Yemen
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Sources and further reading
- Wikipedia: Corn 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.
