The slaty-legged crake hides near the ground in dense forest and gives its loud calls at night.
Adults are mainly dark gray, while juveniles have a different pattern of plumage.
In 2014, researchers found a Slaty-legged Crake nest in a teak plantation at Nilambur, Kerala, southern India. Birds had been surveyed in the area for more than ten years, but this was the first sighting of the species there. The nest sat about 55 cm above ground and was hidden among vegetation beside a forest path, close to a water channel and the Chaliyar River.
The first egg was laid on 3 August and the clutch was complete at seven eggs on 11 August. Incubation lasted 20 days. Three of the seven eggs produced fledged chicks. The researchers also recorded the young feeding with their parents in soil and leaf litter from the day after hatching. The note documented the first breeding record from Nilambur and the first reported incubation period for this species.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
At this approximately 80-hectare plantation, the authors recorded waste disposal, hunting, human-made fires, and forestry practices as local pressures. They noted the site’s value for birds and called for conservation that limits disturbance to understorey vegetation.