Sandhill Cranes - Whooping Cranes

 

Sandhill Crane (Antigone canadensis).
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico. 

Cranes are impressive birds.  They are tall, some approached six feet in height, they perform athletic mating dances and give loud, ringing calls.  There are 15 species of cranes world-wide and are found on all continents except South America and Antarctica. 

North America is home to two species, the more common Sandhill Crane (Antigone canadensis) and the critically endangered Whooping Crane (Grus americana).

Sandhill Crane portrait.  The bright red patch
on the head is bare skin.
Ocala National Forest, Florida. 

Sandhill Cranes with brown-stained feathers.
Anchorage, Alaska.

Sandhill Cranes mating dance.
Ocala National Forest, Florida. 

Sandhill Cranes mating display.
Ocala National Forest, Florida. 

Sandhill Cranes are gray with a red forehead and a dagger-like beak.  They stand over four feet tall with a six-foot wingspan.  During the breeding season Sandhill Cranes will stain their gray feathers brown with iron-rich mud.  The reason for this interesting behavior is widely debated by crane experts.  One camp says it is a part of a mating display, others think it could be a way to clean the feathers of parasites. Some populations of Sandhill Cranes undertake long migrations and flocks often fly in V-formations.  They are also excellent gliders, riding thermals in the fashion of hawks and vultures.   Sandhill Cranes breed across much of northern North American and into eastern Siberia.  These cranes make a migration to the southern tier of the United States and northern Mexico.  Non-migratory populations of Sandhill Cranes live in Florida, Louisiana and Cuba. 

Sandhill Cranes resting in a pond.
Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico.

Sandhill Cranes are found on marshes, ponds and prairies.  They eat fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and small mammals.  Sandhill Cranes will also feed on waste grain in farm fields.  The Platte River Valley in Nebraska is an important stopover on many Sandhill Crane’s northern migration.  They roost in the river and eat corn left in the fields on their way to Canada and Alaska.  

Sandhill Cranes in flight at sunset.
Pungo Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, North Carolina. 

The great American naturalist Aldo Leopold described the call of the Sandhill Crane as “a pandemonium of trumpets, rattles, croaks and cries that almost shakes the bog with its nearness…”.   Hearing a flock of Sandhill Cranes calling as they fly from a pond at sunrise is an unforgettable experience. 

 

Whooping Crane (Grus americana).
Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Texas. 

Whooping Crane hunting in a marsh.
Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Texas. 

Whooping cranes are among the rarest of North American birds and also a conservation success story.  They were probably a rare species before the arrival of Europeans, but their population crashed in the 19^th and 20^th centuries from hunting and habitat loss.  By the 1930s their entire population was less than 30 birds.  Education and captive breeding programs have allowed Whooping Crane numbers to increase to over 800 but they remain endangered. 

 

Whooping Crane with Blue Crab (Callinectes sapidus).
Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Texas. 

Their loud call gives Whooping cranes their name.  They are white with black wing tips, black on the face and a red crown. Whooping cranes are even larger than Sandhill Cranes standing over 5 feet tall with a 7-foot wingspan.  The main migratory population breeds in northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories of Canada.  In the fall they fly across the middle of the North American continent to winter in the coastal marshes of Texas.  They spend the winter eating crabs and other small animals. Several non-migratory populations have been established but high mortality and lack of breeding success have limited their impact on the overall population.   

Whooping Crane with Blue Crab.
Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Texas. 

Cranes hold a special place in cultures around the world.  In Asia and the ancient cultures of the Mediterranean cranes symbolized happiness.  Cranes were thought to be goddesses in pre-Islamic Arabia and Aristotle told of fanciful battles between cranes and pygmies in Africa.  In Native American cultures, cranes often appear on rock art and crane clans are a regular feature in many tribal groups.  Richard Powers,in his 2006 novel Echo Maker describes in moving and vivid detail the flight of Sandhill Cranes in the Platte River Valley. “More birds land by the minute, the air red with calls.  A neck stretches long; legs drape behind.  Wings curl forward, the length of a man.  Spread like fingers, primaries tip the bird into the wind’s plane.  The blood-red head bows and the wings sweep together, a cloaked priest giving benediction… They converge on the river at winter’s end as they have for eons, carpeting the wetlands. In the light, something saurian still clings to them: the oldest flying things on earth, one stutter-step away from pterodactyls.”

Sandhill Cranes calling. https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/search/sandhill-cranes/