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7

Australian Spotted Crake (Porzana fluminea) Alternate name(s): "Water-crake", "Australian Crake", "Spotted Crake" Size: 19-22 cm Weight: 55-70 g

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Similar species

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description Click here for a physical description Australian Spotted Crakes are small wetland birds. They have highly cryptic plumage. Their front (sides of head, throat, breast) is slate-grey, the back (cap, nape of neck) is brown mottled with grey, while the wings are brown with black and white speckles. The belly and vent are heavily barred dark-brown and white. The undertail is a bright white triangle. The irises are red, while the legs and feet are greenish-yellow. The bill, which is also greenish-yellow, has a small orange base and dark top edge of the upper mandible. Twitcher's tip Compared to Baillon's Crakes, Australian Spotted Crakes are darker and have the characteristic white patch on their undertail.

Taxonomy, classification See Australian Spotted Crake at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species Click here for information on habitat and range The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org . The global distribution of the Australian Spotted Crake is available HERE . Australian Spotted Crakes are endemic to Australia. They can be found along the East and South coast of Australia, including eastern Tasmania, and along the rivers of the semi-arid interior, including parts of the Murray-Darling Basin and the Lake Eyre Basin. They also occur along the South and West coast of WA, from where they can disperse further inland and northward up to the Kimberley. In the South-East of Australia they can disperse northwards up to about central QLD. They are not found in northern QLD, including Cape York peninsula, the NT northward of the tropic of Capricorn, the western half of SA and the eastern half of WA. Australian Spotted Crakes live in dense vegetation around both fresh and brackish/saline swamps, along lakes, rivers and in estuaries.

Sightings Click here for sighting information An Australian Spotted Crake was first seen by us at Macquarie Marshes NR, western NSW, in April 2011. A. Lines reports spotting Australian Spotted Crakes after heavy rainfall, when ephemeral wetlands are full, and in floodwaters. They are also spotted occasionally at sewage ponds 15 km North-West of Moree. In October 2011, an Australian Spotted Crake was seen there with 3 feathered chicks. A juvenile Australian Spotted Crake was spotted by us in a swamp at Yarrie Lake, near Wee Waa, NSW, in August 2012. An adult bird was seen there in January 2013. Next a single adult Australian Spotted Crake was seen by us and R. Druce in a riverine wetland with tall reeds on the Namoi River near Harparary, about 40 km South of Narrabri, NSW, in December 2012. F. Japp reports spotting in total 11 Australian Spotted Crakes at Lake Hawthorn, Mildura, VIC, in June 2014. J. Greaves reports spotting an Australian Spotted Crake at Lake Claremont, Perth, WA, in January 2015. B. Hensen reports finding Australian Spotted Crakes in various wetlands in Sydney, e.g. at Eastlakes Golf Course. Another one was found at Fivebough swamp, Leeton, NSW, in November 2012. R. Plumtree found an Australian Spotted Crake at the Montecollina bore, off the Strzelecki Track, SA, in November 2018. M. Eaton found Australian Spotted Crakes around the settling ponds at the Helidon, QLD, Sewage Treatment Plant in February 2019. Another was found at Kingsford Smith Memorial Wetlands, Brisbane, QLD, in April 2023. M. Windeyer reports spotting Australian Spotted Crakes in an ephemeral wetland 20 km West of Gilgandra, NSW, in October 2020, where they were found building a nest at the time. In January 2023 we found an Australian Spotted Crake in an ephemeral wetland ca. 40 km South of Mungindi, NSW.

Photos

ADULT

Sex unknown

Close-up frontal view of an adult Australian Spotted Crake (photo courtesy of F. Japp)
[Lake Hawthorn, Mildura, VIC, in June 2014]

Close-up frontal view of an Australian Spotted Crake (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kingsford Smith Memorial Wetlands, Brisbane, QLD, April 2023]

Frontal view of an Australian Spotted Crake
[40 km S of Mungindi, NSW, January 2023]

Close-up near-frontal view of an Australian Spotted Crake (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kingsford Smith Memorial Wetlands, Brisbane, QLD, April 2023]

Near-frontal view of an Australian Spotted Crake (photo courtesy of R. Plumtree)
[Montecollina bore, off the Strzelecki Track, SA, November 2018]

Close-up near-lateral view of an Australian Spotted Crake (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kingsford Smith Memorial Wetlands, Brisbane, QLD, April 2023]

Close-up lateral view of an Australian Spotted Crake (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kingsford Smith Memorial Wetlands, Brisbane, QLD, April 2023]

Close-up lateral view of an Australian Spotted Crake (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kingsford Smith Memorial Wetlands, Brisbane, QLD, April 2023]

Close-up lateral view of an Australian Spotted Crake (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kingsford Smith Memorial Wetlands, Brisbane, QLD, April 2023]

Close-up lateral view of an Australian Spotted Crake (photo courtesy of F. Japp)
[Lake Hawthorn, Mildura, VIC, in June 2014]

Lateral view of an Australian Spotted Crake (photo courtesy of R. Plumtree)
[Montecollina bore, off the Strzelecki Track, SA, November 2018]

Lateral view of an Australian Spotted Crake moving along the edge of a swamp
[Yarrie Lake, near Wee Waa, NSW, January 2013]

Lateral view of an Australian Spotted Crake; for comparison, the white object in the mud is a golf ball
(photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Eastlakes Golf Course, NSW, December 2012]

Lateral view of an Australian Spotted Crake swimming across a wetland (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Fivebough swamp, Leeton, NSW, November 2012]

Near-dorsal view of an Australian Spotted Crake (photo courtesy of R. Plumtree)
[Montecollina bore, off the Strzelecki Track, SA, November 2018]

Dorsal view of an Australian Spotted Crake
[40 km S of Mungindi, NSW, January 2023]

IMMATURE/JUVENILE

Near-lateral view of an immature Australian Spotted Crake; note the absence of red at the base of the bill
(photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Helidon STP, Lockyer Valley, QLD, February 2019]

Near-lateral view of an adult, left, with an immature Australian Spotted Crake (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Helidon STP, Lockyer Valley, QLD, February 2019]

Breeding information

Breeding season: Aug - Feb

Eggs: 3 - 6

Incubation period: ?

Fledging age: ?

Nest

"bungobittah", "lar", "malunna", "jindi" [bundjalung] = nest [Aboriginal]

Type: Basket

Material: Reeds, aquatic plants, grass lining

Height above ground: N/A

Australian Spotted Crake on its nest (photo courtesy of M. Windeyer)
[20 km West of Gilgandra, NSW, October 2020]

Australian Spotted Crake walking off its nest (photo courtesy of M. Windeyer)
[20 km West of Gilgandra, NSW, October 2020]

Eggs

"boyanga", "booyanga", "derinya", "dirandil", "koomura", "mirk", "ngampu", "nooluk", "pateena", "pum-pum" = Egg; "dirundirri" = eggs [Aboriginal]; "gawu" = eggs [gamilaraay]

Size: 31 x 23 mm

Colour: Light-brown, with sparse mid- to dark-brown speckles

Shape: Tapered oval

Behaviour

Australian Spotted Crakes are very small, shy birds and extremely well-camouflaged. The photo below gives an example of how hard they can be to spot.

Distant lateral view of an Australian Spotted Crake; click on photo to see the full-size image taken with 300 mm focal length
[Near Narrabri, NSW, December 2012]

Food, Diet

Lateral view of an Australian Spotted Crake with small prey it has just pulled from the mud
[40 km S of Mungindi, NSW, January 2023]

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

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Disclaimer: Comments are always welcome. We give no guarantee that the information presented on these pages is always correct or up-to-date. External links are marked as such and we take no responsibility for the contents of external pages. All images on this site are protected by copyright & used by permission of the respective owners. If you wish to reproduce them or any of the material presented on this web site, please contact us: We hereby acknowledge the original custodians of the land which is described on these pages, including the Gomeroi/Gamilaraay people of the North-west Slopes and Plains of NSW, and the traditional owners of other lands and nations within this country. We acknowledge elders past, present and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded.          Last updated: Sat, 15 April 2023, 11:30 +00:00