Baillon's crake, also known as the marsh crake, is a small waterbird of the family Rallidae.
Region
Europe, Asia, and Africa
Typical Environment
This species inhabits shallow freshwater and brackish wetlands with dense emergent vegetation, including reedbeds, sedge marshes, wet meadows, and rice paddies. It favors areas with a mix of open water and thick cover, often using floating or tangled vegetation mats for foraging and nesting. During migration it can occur in temporary pools, floodplains, and coastal lagoons. Wintering birds occupy similar quiet marshes, sometimes in more arid regions where seasonal wetlands persist.
Altitude Range
Sea level to 2500 m
Climate Zone
Other
Ease of Keeping
Beginner friendly: 1/5
Baillon's crake, also known as the marsh crake, is a tiny, secretive rail that slips through dense wetland vegetation and is far more often heard than seen. It builds a well-concealed, often semi-floating nest among reeds and sedges. The species flicks its short tail while moving, sometimes flashing whitish undertail coverts. Its accelerating, ticking call is a key clue to its presence in breeding marshes.
At Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
Stuffed specimen
Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden, Germany
Temperament
secretive and skulking
Flight Pattern
short rapid wingbeats; weak, low flights over cover
Social Behavior
Generally solitary or in pairs during the breeding season. Nests are well-hidden platforms woven in dense marsh vegetation, often just above water. Both parents incubate and tend precocial chicks that quickly leave the nest but remain in cover. Outside breeding, individuals remain elusive and are seldom seen in open.
Migratory Pattern
Partial migrant
Song Description
The call is a rapid, repetitive ticking or ‘kek-kek-kek’ that accelerates and may become a short trill. It often calls at dusk and night, making vocalizations the best way to detect it in dense habitat.
Plumage
Upperparts brown with blackish streaking and pale spotting on the scapulars; underparts greyish to buff with finely barred flanks. Short tail often held cocked, showing whitish undertail coverts. Plumage overall patterned for camouflage in reeds.
Diet
Feeds mainly on aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates such as beetles, flies and their larvae, spiders, small snails, and crustaceans. It also takes small seeds and other plant material opportunistically. Foraging is done by picking from surfaces, probing soft mud, and gleaning among floating vegetation. Diet composition varies with season and wetland availability.
Preferred Environment
Forages along the edges of shallow pools, among reed and sedge stems, and on floating mats of vegetation. It prefers quiet microhabitats with dense cover close to open water pockets.
