Sandhill crane

Sandhill crane standing on dark, bare ground

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.

To learn more about this bird and its habitat, visit the sandhill crane page at All About Birds.

Field notes in photographs

  • 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
  • Sandhill cranes dancing with wings spread in a green field
  • Sandhill crane photographed in Manitoba, 5
  • Sandhill crane photographed in Manitoba, 7
  • Sandhill crane photographed in Manitoba, 8

Sandhill crane Manitoba sightings

Where and when you can find the sandhill crane in Manitoba depends on the season and the habitat. You can see more species in the Manitoba birds section.

Map of Manitoba showing where the sandhill crane nests and migrates, with major cities and lakes
Where to look for the sandhill crane in Manitoba through the seasons: nesting in the Boreal Shield, the Hudson Plains, the Southern Arctic, and the Boreal Plains (gold) and passing through the Taiga Shield and the Prairies in spring and fall (lilac). Habitat regions: National Ecological Framework for Canada. Boundaries: Statistics Canada. Lakes: Natural Earth.

Back to Manitoba bird photography, or see the portfolio.

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