Description: The sandhill crane is a long-legged, long-necked bird with a naked red forehead and slate or brown-gray plumage. Adults have a white chin, cheek and upper throat and black primaries. The young have a feathered head and chocolate-brown plumage with some rusty color. Sandhill cranes have are 34 to 38 inches in length and weigh eight to 10 pounds. Preening with muddy bills, cranes may stain feathers of upper back, lower neck and breast with ferrous solution contained in the mud. During migration, they fly in V-formations or make long lines. Their calls can be heard for miles. They have an unforgettable trumpeting call of gar-oo-oo. It is produced by a modified windpipe that has been likened to a French horn.
Range: The sandhill crane population is estimated to be 25,000 birds, and approximately 15,000 of them occur in the Rocky Mountain regions of Canada as well as in the states Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Montana and Colorado. The San Luis Valley of Colorado is a major stopover point for spring and fall migrations. Peak migration counts may be as high as 17,000. The sandhill crane is considered to be a species of special concern.
Habitat: They live in mudflats around reservoirs, moist meadows and agricultural areas. Breeding birds are found in parks with grassy hummocks and watercourses, beaver ponds and natural ponds lined with willows or aspens. They nest in wetlands and shallow marshes.
Diet: They forage for roots and starchy swellings that are found on the roots of tubers. They also eat seeds, small mammals and reptiles, eggs of other birds and invertebrates, such as worms, clams, insects and crayfish. In winter, sandhill cranes regularly feed in dry fields, returning to water at night.
Reproduction: The sandhill cranes are very territorial during the breeding season. The typical number of young produced by a female is two eggs, which are usually laid on a huge mound of marsh plants yanked up by their roots. The nest construction can take up to seven days and the nests may be five to six feet across. The pair of cranes, both the male and female, share incubation. The sandhill cranes have an unusual and spectacular mating dance. Two chicks hatch two to three days apart and the older one is often aggressive to its sibling. The parents keep the youngsters separated by walking apart, each adult is followed by one of the chicks. Full adult plumage is reached after two and a half years.
Endangered status: The sandhill crane is listed as a species of special concern. The population decline in Colorado is the result of human settlement. As people moved in, much of the nesting habitat became unsuitable because of either direct or indirect human disturbance during the incubation and chick-rearing periods, resulting in nest abandonment and loss of young. Additionally, many of the cranes were hunted for food.
For more information, see the Natural Diversity Information Source species profile.