Yellow-breasted Crake

How to find it

Go by boat, and go with a local guide. Boat guides take birders to the right marsh habitat and wait, and a crake often walks into view without playback. Watch small patches of floating vegetation quietly, because the crake appears after a few moments. Its long toes let it walk lightly over floating leaves, so mats of vegetation are worth scanning. Some visitors spot it while watching a Pinnated Bittern from a boat. A short side trip along the road from Los Chiles to Medio Queso, known for hard-to-see species, is another way to meet it.

How to recognise it

This is a very small crake, about 12.5 to 14 cm long, and the overall impression is yellowish.

Look for these marks:

- a black crown and a black eye stripe that forks at the eye

- a bold, broken white eyebrow between them

- a white throat and a buffy yellow breast

- black and white banded flanks

- a streaked back

- large yellow-orange legs

- a slightly curved, spike-like bill

Males and females look alike, so there is no need to sort the sexes in the field.

What it sounds like

Recording: Pablo H Capovilla, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

The crake feeds among emergent marsh plants, sometimes running across them or climbing in them. It leaves cover at dawn and dusk to feed at the water's edge. When alarmed it runs through weeds or dives rather than flying, and its flight is short and weak, with the legs dangling. At Medio Queso, birders have watched one carry food to hidden young during an afternoon boat trip.

Where it lives

Across its range the species lives in a variety of freshwater marshes. In Costa Rica it belongs to the north of the country, around a wildlife reserve and the Medio Queso wetlands near Los Chiles. Guides there have found it on small patches of floating vegetation in the lagoon. At Medio Queso, boats cruise the waterways beside a big reed bed. In Costa Rica the crake seems to make local movements as water levels change.

When to see it

A Costa Rican guide says the best time for birding in the northern lagoon is the dry season, February to April, when falling water concentrates the birds in fewer places. One lodge runs morning trips to Medio Queso from about February to the end of April, depending on water level.

Similar birds

The face pattern is the best guide: a bold, broken white eyebrow between a blackish crown and a black eye stripe that forks at the eye. Add the yellow-orange legs, the buffy yellow breast and the banded flanks, and it is easy to tell from other small marsh birds.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rica's Spanish name is Polluela Pechiamarilla, a name Mexico and Nicaragua share. Other countries use different names, such as polluela de antifaz in Colombia and burrito amarillo in Argentina.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list classes it as a resident in Costa Rica, and the IUCN rates the species Least Concern across its range.

Photography tips

In flight the large yellow-orange legs hang well below the body, and photos from the north show this, along with the blackish cap from above. Scan floating mats of vegetation and be ready, since it runs or dives rather than flying when alarmed.