Crake expectations

How could a farmland bird with an extraordinary call, which was once as familiar as the blackbird, have been driven from all but the outer fringes of the British Isles? James Fair investigates the case of the vanishing corncrake

- James Fair

CORNCRAKE 

FACT FILE

• DIET

A wide range of invertebrates, including many different types of insects, spiders, slugs and worms.

• BREEDING SEASON

They arrive back in Britain in mid-April, producing their first brood of chicks by late May to mid-June. Females will then have a second brood, and even – if time allows – a third.

• EGGS

Females typically lay between six and 10 eggs.

• FLEDGING

 Incubation takes up to 19 days. Chicks are looked after for 14 days after hatching and fully fledge after 34–38 days.

• LIFESPAN

They are short-lived birds – most will only make it back to Britain for one breeding season. Some calling males have been recorded for three years.

If you were asked to compile a list of birds celebrated in British culture, what would you say? Nightingale, skylark and robin perhaps? Owl or swan, possibly? My guess is that you wouldn't think of the corncrake, but it's there, like an occasional faint streak in a stick of rock.