Sandhill crane

You usually hear sandhill cranes before you see them: a rolling, rattling call carrying across the fields in April as the pairs return. Out in the open they are hard to miss, tall and grey with a red crown, stepping through last year’s stubble as if they own it. By late spring they have tucked into the wetlands to nest, and by June the rust-coloured chicks are trailing along behind.

Sandhill cranes mate for life, and their dancing, with bowing, leaping and tossing grass, isn’t only for courtship. The rusty colour on many birds isn’t natural: they preen mud and iron-stained plant matter into their feathers. The chicks, called colts, can walk within a day of hatching. Cranes are one of the oldest bird lineages on earth, with fossils going back some 2.5 million years. By September and October they gather in flocks and head south.

Sandhill crane standing on dark, bare ground

Photos

  • Sandhill crane standing on dark, bare ground
  • Young sandhill crane standing in golden grass
  • Pair of sandhill cranes calling in a bare spring woodland
  • Sandhill crane standing in a bare spring woodland
  • Pair of sandhill cranes standing in green grass
  • Pair of sandhill cranes with two chicks walking across a green field
  • Three sandhill cranes standing together in a green field
  • Sandhill crane resting in tall green grass

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