Cranes, rails and allies | Gruiformes

Families in this order

• Cranes | Gruidae3 speciesLarge birds with a long neck and long legs which, unlike herons, fly with the neck stretched out; the lengthened inner secondaries droop over the tail as a bustle, drawn out in some species into trailing, hair-fine plumes. In the species of the genus Grus the windpipe is elongated and coiled into the breastbone, which accounts for the far-carrying trumpeting note that a pair often delivers in duet; the crowned cranes lack that loop and instead give a blowing, honking call amplified by a red throat sac. The bill is straight and of moderate length: they feed while walking over grassland, vlei, arable land and flooded plain, digging up tubers and roots and taking seed, insects and small vertebrates as well. In most species the hind toe is small and set high, so they cannot perch in trees; only the crowned cranes have a long, low-set hind toe and roost in treetops. One to three eggs are laid on a heap of plant material in or beside shallow water, and the chick stays with its parents for the first months.
• Rails and crakes | Rallidae14 speciesThe body is flattened from side to side, so the bird can squeeze between dense reed and sedge; the toes are strikingly long, and lobed in the swimming species. The wings are short and rounded: over short distances they fly with a whirring beat and dangling legs, though many species migrate long distances by night. The short tail is flicked up as they walk, showing the often pale undertail, and the bill ranges from short and conical to long and slender according to the food taken. The nest is a cup of stems and leaves hidden above shallow water; clutches are large, and the black downy chicks follow their parents within a day and are fed bill to bill.
• Finfoots | Heliornithidae1 speciesA small family of three species, one on each of three continents: the African Finfoot (Podica), the Masked Finfoot of Asia and the Sungrebe of the Neotropics. Finfoots look like a cross between a grebe and a cormorant. They have a long body, a slender neck and a sharp, straight bill. They are, however, gruiforms, and molecular studies place them close to the flufftails (Sarothruridae). Instead of webs, the toes carry broad lobes. In the African Finfoot these, like the legs, are a startling scarlet to orange. The feet serve both for strong swimming and for agile clambering over branches and roots above the water. Finfoots are shy, secretive birds of quiet, shaded rivers and streams with dense overhanging vegetation. They swim low in the water with a pumping head action, keeping tight to the bank. When disturbed they slip beneath the overhang or escape in a pattering run across the surface. The diet includes aquatic insects, crabs, snails, frogs and small fish, taken from the surface, from branches or on the bank. Breeding biology is poorly known. The African Finfoot builds a nest of twigs and reeds on a branch or piece of flood debris above the water and usually lays two eggs. In the Sungrebe the male is known to carry the chicks in skin pockets beneath the wings.
• Flufftails | Sarothruridae7 speciesAn African and Madagascan family only recently recognised as separate from the true rails (Rallidae). Molecular work showed flufftails to be closer to the finfoots than to the rails they resemble. Seven species of Sarothrura occur in this region. They are tiny, rotund crakes, barely starling-sized, with short tails and dense, soft plumage, the 'fluff' of the name. The sexes differ markedly. Males typically have a chestnut head and breast and a black body finely spotted or streaked with white. Females are drab and brownish, closely barred. Flufftails live deep in dense marsh vegetation, wet grassland and forest-floor litter. They rank among the hardest African birds to see, creeping mouse-like through cover. When flushed, they flutter weakly for a short distance with legs dangling. Even so, several species make long seasonal movements, such as the White-winged Flufftail, which moves between Ethiopia and South Africa. They eat small insects, spiders, worms, snails and seeds, pecked from the ground and leaf litter. The nest is a cup or dome of grass placed low in vegetation and holds two to five white eggs. Usually the only clue to their presence is the voice: far-carrying series of hollow hoots, whistles or moaning notes. Calling is most frequent at dusk, at night and in overcast weather.