Baillon's Crake Zapornia pusilla 小田雞
Category I. Scarce passage migrant in spring and autumn to freshwater wetlands.
IDENTIFICATION
May 2009, Michelle and Peter Wong.
17-19 cm. Adults in spring have greyish underparts and supercilium with brown cheek patch, black and white barred lower flanks and (more densely) undertail coverts, warm brown upperparts with irregular whitish marks, dark-centred tertials with broad brown fringes, yellowish-green legs, large feet and a very short primary projection beyond tertials.
Sep. 2022, Paul Leader.
Young birds in autumn have whitish throat and belly separated by brownish chest, less white on the upperparts, dull pink legs and no grey on the face.
VOCALISATIONS
Appears to vocalise rarely in HK. Two calls recorded from the breeding grounds are below.
The song is a rising series of nasal buzzing rattles.
DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE
Baillon’s Crake occurs in densely-vegetated freshwater marsh habitat, and so has most often been seen at Long Valley and Mai Po NR. It has been recorded at other lowland sites in the northern New Territories, as well as less suitable sites such as the Chek Lap Kok airport island, Hong Kong Park and Po Toi.
OCCURRENCE
A passage migrant in both spring and autumn. Springs records have occurred in the period 15 April to 22 May (though the 22 May record was of a bird found freshly dead) and on 3 June. Autumn records have occurred from 29 August to 4 December, the late date suggesting wintering birds might occur in the future.
Although its true status is probably obscured because of its skulking habits and preference for well-vegetated, swampy habitats, Baillon’s Crake appears to be exclusively a scarce passage migrant during both spring and autumn (Figure 1). However, whereas Carey et al. (2001) indicated that the numbers occurring in each season were similar, the data from this century suggest it is approximately three times more numerous in autumn. Usually singles are recorded, occasionally two.
The only records for Hong Kong prior to 1958 were two at Long Valley on 13 April 1953 (Dove and Goodhart 1955). Earlier, Vaughan and Jones (1913) had considered it to be a fairly numerous ‘bird of passage’ at large marshes in Guangdong, occurring in spring from 19 March to 2 April and in autumn from 18 September (no late date given).
BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET
Skulking species, usually met with when flushed from vegetated freshwater marsh, out of which it flies weakly and usually not very far.
RANGE & SYSTEMATICS
Breeds patchily in south and southeast Europe and from Eastern Europe east through Central Asia, northern Kazakhstan, southwest Siberia, northern Mongolia and Ussuriland to northeast China and northern Japan. Winters on the Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia. Resident taxa occur on Borneo, New Guinea and Australasia (Taylor et al. 2020).
Six subspecies are recognised, of which two are migratory but only one is likely to occur in HK: nominate pusilla, which breeds in central and east Asia and winters in south and southeast Asia. Z. p. intermedia breeds from Europe to Asia Minor and in Africa, while the remaining taxa are resident.
Liu and Chen (2020) state that Baillon’s Crake breeds in northwest and northeast China, migrates through much of the country and winters in small numbers in southeastern coastal provinces including Hainan and Taiwan. However, the lack of winter records in HK suggests the number of wintering birds in south China must be very low.
CONSERVATION STATUS
IUCN: Least Concern. Population trend unknown.
Figure 1.
Dove, R. S. and H. J. Goodhart (1955). Field observations from the Colony of Hong Kong. Ibis 97: 311-340.
Liu, Y. and Y. H. Chen (2020). The CNG Field Guide to the Birds of China (in Chinese). Hunan Science and Technology Publication House, Changsha.
Taylor, B., G. M. Kirwan, and D. A. Christie (2020). Baillon's Crake (Zapornia pusilla), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.baicra1.01
Vaughan, R. E. and K. H. Jones (1913). The birds of Hong Kong, Macao and the West River or Si Kiang in South-East China, with special reference to their nidification and seasonal movements. Ibis 1913: 17-76, 163-201, 351-384.
