General

Sandhill Crane: Large wading bird with gray body, white cheeks, and bright red cap. Bill is dark and eyes are yellow. Sexes are similar. Juvenile is mottled gray-and-brown, lacks red cap, and has yellow bill and dark eyes.

Range and Habitat

Sandhill Crane: Breeds from Siberia and Alaska east across Arctic Canada to Hudson Bay and south to western Ontario, with isolated populations in the Rocky Mountains, northern prairies, Great Lakes region, and in Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida. Spends winters in California's Central Valley, and across southern states from Arizona to Florida. Preferred habitats include large freshwater marshes, prairie ponds, and marshy tundra; also found on prairies and grain fields during migration and in winter.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"kar-r-r-r-o-o-o"

Interesting Facts

 Sandhill Cranes are noted for their elaborate courtship displays. Two displays are used to form mating pairs while three other displays occur only between mates and serve to maintain the pair bond.

 A crane fossil approximately ten million years old was found in Nebraska and is structurally identical to the modern Sandhill Crane, making it the oldest known bird species still surviving.

 They frequently preen with vegetation and mud stained with iron oxide resulting in a reddish brown color rather than their natural gray.

 A group of cranes has many collective nouns, including a "construction", "dance", "sedge", "siege", and "swoop" of cranes.

Author

Gary Owen Dick