Scientific name: Porzana flavirostra
The adult black crake is 19–23 cm (7.5–9.1 in) long with a short tail and long toes. As its name implies, the adult has mainly black plumage, with a brown olive tone on the wings and upperparts which is rarely detectable in the field. The eye is red, the bill is yellow (hence the flavirostra of the binomial name), and the legs and feet are red, duller when not breeding.
The sexes are similar, but the male is slightly larger. Most males, but only 10% of females, have a hooked upper mandible. The immature bird has brown upperparts and a dark grey head and underparts. Its bill is greenish yellow, and its feet and legs are dull red.
Within southern Africa it is common in northern Namibia (including the Caprivi Strip), northern and south-eastern Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland and north-eastern and southern South Africa. It generally prefers vegetation along the edge of wetlands, especially with rank grass, sedges, Papyrus (Cyperus papyrus), reedbeds with Phragmites and alien Spanish reed (Arundo donax), swamp thickets and bushes.
Omnivorous, feeding on invertebrates, plant matter and small vertebrates, such as eggs, nestlings, fish and frogs. It does most of its foraging by walking along muddy shores, plucking prey from the air, water and from aquatic vegetation.
