Aron Tanti

A long-distance migrant secretive crake, frequenting wetlands and reedbeds, breeding across Europe from Spain to northern Russia, east to North-West Mongolia. Winters in India and Africa, from Sudan to the austral region, and a few local wintering sites in West Africa.

Season of assessment

B

Population trendDecreasing
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		200000-289000,235000
Red List categoryLC
Franks, S., Fiedler, W., Arizaga, J., Jiguet, F., Nikolov, B., van der Jeugd, Ambrosini, R, Aizpurua, O., Bairlein, F., Clark, J., Fattorini, N, Hammond, M., Higgins, D, Levering, H., Skellorn, W., Spina, F, Thorup, K. Walker, J., Woodward, I. and Baillie, S.R. (1) (2022) Online Atlas of the movements of European bird populations. https://migrationatlas.org EURING/CMS (1) Principal investigator
Map

Overall Connectivity for Spotted Crake

There are not many recoveries, for which the overall direction of migration is NE to SW, so birds from the Baltic states and Finland use mainly a western flyway to reach West Africa. There is a migration divide between the Netherlands and the Balkans, with birds moving either to the SW or to the SE to pass by Italy and the Balkans, probably using a central flyway to Africa. Most remains to be discovered, but the western flyway used by European birds would indicate either a wintering range in West Africa, or a loop migration as observed for other species wintering down to Austral Africa.

Recoveries by Condition for Spotted Crake

There are very few old recoveries, mostly of birds found dead, while post-1990 recoveries are mostly of live birds retrapped by ringers (95%), mostly obtained in summer during the post-breeding period and during the 2000s.

Annual Movements for Spotted Crake

The spring migration starts with recoveries in southern France and northern Italy in March, with birds moving to central latitudes in April, and recoveries up to northern breeding grounds in May, in a SW to NE direction in spring. In August and September, there are more numerous recoveries of juveniles in lower countries, from Poland to France, shifting slowly southwards until October.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Spotted Crake

The very few African recoveries are from November and from the Mediterranean coast of the Maghreb. As a consequence, there is no ringing data to document the connectivity beyond what happens during the migration within Europe, and beyond a general pattern of annual movements, described below. There are some casual winter recoveries in southern European countries, from November to February.

Frédéric Jiguet

References

Statistics Map
N records N individuals N recoveries
Mapped data*
Total available data
*Mapped data include only distant (>= 50 km) recoveries