Coturnicops exquisitus is known to breed at a handful of sites in south-east Russia and north-east China with recent reports of possible breeding in Aomora Prefecture, Japan¹. It has been recorded on passage and in winter in Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, Japan (including the Nansei Shoto Islands) and southern and eastern China. Its breeding and wintering ranges are inadequately known and it is probably very rare and declining. It is considered to be uncommon in mainland China, although surveys at Poyang Hu lake, Jiangxi, in the early 1980s, recorded 5-30 birds per km².