Baillon’s Crake is a small, secretive rail. The species ranges across Eurasia, southeastern Africa, Madagascar, New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand; the BTO account identifies eastern Europe as its main range.
In the subspecies present in Japan, the upperparts are brown with black-and-white streaks. Adults have gray faces and underparts, with black-and-white bars on the flanks and undertail.
It lives in lowland wetlands with reeds and sedges and feeds on aquatic insects. The Japanese government account records it mainly in northern Japan in summer and notes that its life history in Japan remains incompletely known.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.