The Black-tailed Crake lives around wetlands and water from the eastern Himalayas to southwestern China and Indochina. It has a gray head, reddish-brown back, and black tail.
Its head is ashy gray, its upperparts reddish brown, and its tail black. The bill is blue-green, with a pale tip and reddish base.
It uses wetlands, streamside vegetation, and woodland around rice fields. Its diet includes insects, worms, molluscs, and wetland seeds.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.