Corncrake Consulting
Corncrake Consulting Limited. Registered in England No. 3630911

Corncrake Ornithology

The secretive corncrake is a summer visitor to the UK and other parts of Northern Europe but it is becoming increasingly rare.

Its haunting ‘crek crek’ song used to be a common sound of the UK countryside and the corncrake is referred to in many poems and songs from the 18th and 19th centuries. However, its numbers
have declined rapidly over the past 50 years mainly as a result of more intense farming methods and harvesting machinery.

By the early 1970s there were only 3250 calling males in the UK and by 1993 the number had declined to 478. The population is believed to have declined further since 1993 but the famous secrecy of the corncrake makes estimation a difficult task.

More than 90% of the UK corncrake population is believed to be in the Scottish Hebrides with the remainder mainly in Orkney.

In Scotland, Wales and Ireland,
active steps are now finally being taken - with Government support - to try to halt and then hopefully reverse the decline of the corncrake population.

These steps include working jointly with farmers and landowners to try to protect the breeding habitats of the corncrake - principally meadows, hayfields and other areas of long grass which can provide the seclusion the corncrake requires.

Corncrake: Latin name = Crex crex