Ruddy-breasted Crake Porzana fusca
Etymology:
- Porzana : Local Venetian names for smaller crakes
- Fusca : Brown
- Zeylonica: From Ceylon, modern Srilanka
Vernacular Names : Pun: Lal jal-bater, Cachar: Di daobui gajao, Guj: Rathi santhakukdi, Ta: Kanan kozhi, Mal: Chenkozhi, Sinh: Punchi korowaka, Mar: Lalsar Chatichi Fatakadi
Sub Species :
- Nominate – North India to East India
- f. zeylonica- West to South India
Distribution in India:
- Nominate – North India to East India
- f. zeylonica- West to South India
Description: Size of 21–23 cm; wt. of 51·5–63·7 g. It has Dull chestnut underparts, unmarked dark olive -Brown upperparts ,indistinct dark brown & white barring on rear flanks and undertail coverts. Legs are red. Both the sexes are similar. The juvenile has darker upperparts than adult; supercilium and sides of head and neck are dull white; underparts mostly dull white, barred dusky brown; flanks and thighs are dull olive brown; undertail-coverts as adult; iris is brown. Races separated on size and on shade of underparts, dark in nominate and zeylonica, which are also smallest.
Habitat: It is found in reedy swamps, marshes and stream banks, reedbeds, wet grassland at edges of lakes, ditches and canals, edges of rice paddies; also bushland and forest paths. It is found in lowlands, but breeds up to 2000 m.
Food habits: It eats molluscs, aquatic insects and their larvae, seeds, and shoots of marsh plants. It feeds mainly in cover; occasionally ventures out to edges of reedbeds. It is crepuscular.
Breeding habits: They breed in Jun–Sept. The nest is a pad of dry grass, rush, rice straw, roots and leaves of aquatic plants; placed on swampy ground among grass, reeds or rice; sometimes among low bushes. The growing plants sometimes bent over to form canopy. Both the sexes build the nest. They lay a clutch of 3–9 eggs. The incubation period is 20 days. Both the parents feed and care for young.