Marsh Crake in Tauranga

[Raewyn]

I went there on June 13, mid to late afternoon, outgoing tide. I had a good viewing of a marsh crake feeding under and adjacent to the boardwalk from Paul's original location through to the next lot of rushes. It was moving back and forth along the boardwalk line. When startled it went for cover, then came back a minute or so later. Mostly it ignored whatever was happening on the boardwalk. Light was pretty dim so my photos are very noisy, but are clearly a different bird from the one Mike has showed us above.

I've put together a composite of 4 views of the bird I saw, chosen for the fact that they show its markings. It occurred to me that comparing photos might help to work out how many individual birds there are. Mike and Oscar (and anyone else), do you have other photos that show the markings and can help to identify individuals? We know there are at least two. Are there more?

composite-91-96-103-110.jpg (1.48 MiB) Viewed 1451 times

[Oscar Thomas]

A hard call Raewyn but I'd say mine has a darker bill and faint brown patch behind the eye, which I don't see on your bird. I just have photos from the right side but I'd say it looks like Mike's photographed bird, it was two individuals he saw. A pair perhaps?

[Mike Vincent]

There is more than one Marsh Crake I saw two chasing each other around but too far away for a photo. A while later I took the shot below whilst Bartek was watching another bird about 4m away.

[Tim Barnard]

Dropped by today and its still there. A second bird calling quite close to the car park about 10m south.
Cheers
Tim