Spotted crake

    Porzana porzana

Castilian: Polluela pintoja

Catalan: Polla pintada

Gallego: Poliña pinta

Euskera: Uroilanda pikarta

CLASIFICACIÓN:

Orden: Gruiformes

Family: Rallidae

Migratory status: Summer resident

CONSERVATION STATUS:

On the National List of Threatened Species, it appears in the “Of Special Interest” category. In the 2004 edition of the Red Book of Spanish Birds (Libro Rojo de las Aves de España) it is listed as “Insufficient Data”.

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THREATS

Its principal threat is the loss of its habitat.

Length / size: 22-24 cm / 37-42 cm

Identification: Bird with cryptic plumage. Its back is brown with white streaks, its breast is greyish with white spots (the source of its common name), its flanks have white, brown and black bars, and its bill is yellow and red at the base; females have softer colours.

Song: It makes a sharp, high-pitched "gwet gwet gwet" sound.

Diet: Its diet is very varied: it includes plant matter, such as stalks, roots, and algae, and animals, such as aquatic insects, snails, small fish, worms, etc. which it catches when swimming or pecking at the surface of vegetation.

Reproduction: The breeding cycle begins with a loud courtship that attracts the female. Both sexes build the nest using stalks and leaves and covering it with grass, and it is located near water and is hidden in the vegetation. Both incubate the eggs, and the first chick that hatches is cared for by the male, while the female continues to incubate. A few hours after hatching, the chicks swim and eat alone.

HABITAT

It occupies shallow freshwater areas where there is dense river vegetation. Thus it is found in bogs, marshes and partially-flooded fields.

DISTRIBUTION

In Spain: It is rarely found in the Guadalquivir marshes and in some enclaves in Aragon, Castile-La Mancha, Catalonia, the Valencian Community, Basque Country and Galicia.

In Castile and León: In passage it is distributed throughout all the provinces.

Movements and migrations: In winter, it is found from the Mediterranean countries to the Middle East and the Caspian Sea. There is a high number of specimens that cross Spain to get to tropical Africa.

POPULATION

In Spain: There is no precise information, although there is an estimated population of several dozen breeding pairs.

In Castile and León: