Nature » Fauna

Corncrake

Crex crex

Size: length cm 25; weight 135-200 g.

How long it lives: 6 years.

Habitat: prairies with specific features are the ideal habitat for the species. It has been observed in regularly mowed and fertilized meadows on valley bottoms and hilly reliefs, and in areas with nitrophilous vegetation and high grass, near mountain pastures. It does not live in abandoned meadows, where it cannot move quickly.

What it eats: above all invertebrates.

Reproduction: it builds a nest in the grass and lays 8-12 eggs, which are brooded for about 20 days by the female.

Chicks: they are nidifugous, abandoning the nest a little after birth, and following their mother in an area of 100-200 meters around the nest. The chicks begin to fly when they are about 25 days old.

Curiosities: their call is very characteristic, a sort of "crex crex" continuously uttered, especially during the night.

Remarks: the Corncrake is a migratory species, reaching the Bellunese territory in late spring (end of April-May) and leaving it in late summer. Its presence has passed unnoticed for many years and has been only recently considered (at the beginning of the 90s).

In the Park: Feltre area (Municipalities of Feltre, Pedavena, Sovramonte); the species is also common in the pre-Park areas, always in the Feltre district. In the Belluno area the Corncrake seems to be less widespread, while in the Agordino area a population of about ten singing males can be found in the Municipalities of Rivamonte and Gosaldo.