Crex crex

The Long-legged Rail is a medium-sized, tawny mottled rail. The upper body is gray-brown, with black feather shafts in thick vertical stripes, and wide brown patches on the wings. The front of the eyes, cheeks, ear area and eyebrow stripes are gray, the eyebrow is wide and gray, and the eye stripes are brown. The top of the head, back, primary flight feathers, and tail are dark brown with black markings and wide ochre feather edges and gray feather tips. The chin is whitish, the throat, front neck and abdomen are grayish white, and the upper wing coverts and underwing coverts are chestnut. The flanks are white with brownish yellow and reddish brown horizontal stripes. The primary flight feathers are ochre brown, the upper wing coverts, underwing coverts, and axillary feathers are chestnut or ochre brown. The undertail coverts are tawny with chestnut and black and white horizontal stripes. The rusty brown long wings are a distinct feature when flying. When flying, the wings are weak and

Origin: Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, China, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malawi, Mauritania, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Sudan, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, United Republic of Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Regional extinction: Faroe Islands.
Wandering: Afghanistan, Angola, Bermud

The foreign name of the long-legged rail is Corncrake, Corn Crake, which is a small wading bird with no subspecies.

The long-legged rail is a summer migratory bird in China. It migrates to my country in late April in spring and migrates away in October in autumn. Good at hiding, hiding in the grass or bushes during the day, coming out in the morning, dusk and night, and often singing, with a clear and loud voice that can be heard from far away. When singing, it often stretches its neck forward and swings it back and forth. It is fast and agile when running on the ground, so it often escapes from enemies by running fast. It can also fly in danger and when passing through open water, but the flying speed is not fast, and the two wings flap slowly, often not flying far and quickly falling into the grass. Because of its long legs and long toes, it is very convenient to walk on wetlands, but when taking off and flying, the two long legs have to hang down.

Long-legged rails are omnivorous animals, mainly feeding on various insects, worms, grass seeds and grains.

The breeding season of the long-legged rail is from May to July, and the mate is one male and one female. Usually nests are built on wet grasslands in river valleys rich in shrubs and herbs on dry banks, and also in lakeside swamps and forests, and sometimes even in bushes or tall grass near cultivated land or fields. The size of the nest is 12-14 cm in diameter and 7 cm deep. Each nest lays 6-14 eggs, usually 7-12 eggs. The eggs are oval in shape, light ochre in color, with reddish-brown spots, and the size of the eggs is 34-6.1 mm × 24.1-29.6 mm. The female bird incubates the eggs. The incubation period is 14-15 days.

The global population of the long-legged rail is estimated to be 5.45-9.72 million, and the population is in a stable trend. Although it is widely distributed in the world, due to the development of agricultural mechanization in Europe and the large-scale mowing and grazing in the past, the habitat has been destroyed, and the population has been in a state of decline for a long time. China has a smaller distribution area and the number is even rarer.

The news about the distribution of the long-legged rail in Xinjiang, China was published in 1934. For more than half a century, no one in China has recorded or collected specimens of the long-legged rail. Various papers have followed and cited the report published in 1934, and even all the literature records are similar. From 1998 to 2000, the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography conducted a nearly three-year field survey and happily obtained the following results: the long-legged rail has a wide distribution area in Xinjiang, and the preliminary estimate of its population in Xinjiang is 1,500-3,000. In the field survey, it was found that the long-legged rail is not only distributed in Ili Prefecture, Altay Prefecture, Changji Prefecture and other places, but also in the suburbs of Urumqi.

Listed in the "Red List of Endangered Species of the World Conservation Union" (IUCN) 2016 ver 3.1-Least Concern (LC).

Listed in the "List of National Key Protected Wildlife in China" Level II.

Protect wild animals and stop eating game.

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