Sandhill Crane (Antigone canadensis): Facts and Migration

Appearance

Adult sandhill cranes are tall birds with long necks, long dark legs and a straight, dark, pointed bill. Their plumage is gray overall, with whitish cheeks and a patch of bare, bright red skin on the forehead and crown. Males and females look alike, although males are usually a little larger.

Many sandhill cranes do not look gray at all in spring and summer. They rub iron-rich mud into their feathers while preening, which stains the body a rusty brown. This “painting” fades and disappears when the birds molt into fresh feathers. Read more in why some sandhill cranes are brown.

Young cranes, called colts, are cinnamon brown and lack the red crown. They gain adult coloring in their second year.

In flight, a crane holds its neck straight out in front and its legs trailing behind. The wingbeat is distinctive: a slow downstroke followed by a quick upward flick. This straight neck is one of the easiest ways to separate a crane from a heron, which flies with its neck folded (see heron vs crane).

Size: how big is a sandhill crane?

Sandhill cranes vary a lot in size from north to south. The lesser sandhill crane, which breeds in the Arctic, is the smallest; the greater sandhill crane of the northern US and southern Canada is the largest.

On average, a female lesser sandhill crane weighs about 3.5 kg (7.6 lb), while a male greater sandhill crane averages about 5 kg (11 lb).

Subspecies

Most authorities recognize five or six subspecies. Three are migratory and three stay in the same area all year:

• Lesser sandhill crane (A. c. canadensis): breeds from northeastern Siberia across Alaska and northern Canada; the most numerous form.
• Greater sandhill crane (A. c. tabida): breeds in the Great Lakes region, the northern Rockies and the Pacific Northwest.
• Canadian sandhill crane (A. c. rowani): breeds in central Canada; some experts merge it with the greater sandhill crane.
• Florida sandhill crane (A. c. pratensis): resident in Florida and southern Georgia.
• Mississippi sandhill crane (A. c. pulla): a small, endangered population on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi.
• Cuban sandhill crane (A. c. nesiotes): resident in Cuba and on Isla de la Juventud.

Sandhill cranes have one of the longest fossil histories of any living bird. Fossils that are clearly this species date back about 2.5 million years.

Habitat and range

Sandhill cranes need open, wet places for nesting and roosting, and open land for feeding. They breed in marshes, bogs, wet meadows and tundra, and they roost at night standing in shallow water, which helps protect them from predators such as coyotes. During migration and in winter they feed in grasslands and farm fields, especially harvested cornfields.

The breeding range stretches from northeastern Siberia across Alaska and Canada to the Great Lakes, the northern Rockies and the Pacific Northwest. Migratory birds winter in California, the southern Great Plains, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Florida, Georgia and northern Mexico. Resident populations live year-round in Florida, Mississippi and Cuba.

In recent decades the species has spread into areas where it had disappeared or never bred, including parts of the Northeast such as New York and New England. Single birds occasionally stray to Japan, China and even western Europe.

Migration: where do sandhill cranes go?

Migratory sandhill cranes travel between northern breeding grounds and southern wintering areas each spring and fall. They migrate in family groups within larger flocks, soaring on rising warm air (thermals) and gliding long distances with little flapping. Lesser sandhill cranes from Siberia and Alaska may cover more than 5,000 km (3,100 mi) each way.

The most famous stop is the central Platte River in Nebraska. From late February to early April, hundreds of thousands of cranes rest there, feeding in nearby fields by day and roosting on river sandbars at night. It is one of the largest gatherings of cranes anywhere in the world. Other key sites include Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico, the San Luis Valley in Colorado, Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area in Indiana and the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge in Tennessee.

For routes, timing and the best viewing spots, see where sandhill cranes migrate.

Diet and feeding

Sandhill cranes are omnivores. They feed on the ground, walking slowly and probing or picking with their bills. Plant food makes up much of their diet: seeds, grain, roots, tubers and berries. On migration and in winter, waste corn, wheat and sorghum left in harvested fields provide much of the energy they need.

They also eat animal food, especially during the breeding season, when chicks need protein. Prey includes insects, earthworms, snails, crayfish, frogs, small snakes, lizards, mice, voles and occasionally the eggs or nestlings of other birds.

Behavior and communication

Sandhill cranes are social birds. Pairs and their young stay together through the year, and families join larger flocks during migration and winter. These flocks roost together, sometimes in the tens of thousands.

Their call is a loud, rolling, trumpeting rattle that can be heard from more than a kilometer away. The long, coiled windpipe inside the breastbone helps make the sound so powerful. Mated pairs perform a “unison call,” a tightly coordinated duet in which the female gives two notes for every one from the male. Pairs use it to strengthen their bond and to defend their territory.

Sandhill cranes are also famous for dancing. They bow, jump into the air with wings spread, run, flap and toss sticks or grass. Dancing is part of courtship but happens all year and at all ages. Learn more in why cranes dance.

Reproduction and life cycle

Sandhill cranes form long-term pairs, usually staying together for years. Both partners build a nest, a mound of plant material in shallow water or marsh vegetation, occasionally on dry ground. Migratory birds lay in April or May; resident populations in Florida may nest from December to August.

The female usually lays two eggs. Both parents take turns incubating for about 30 days. The chicks, called colts, are precocial: they hatch covered in down with open eyes and can leave the nest within a day. Often only one colt from a clutch survives to fledging.

Young cranes can fly at about 2 to 2.5 months old but stay with their parents for about 10 months, migrating south with them and learning the route. The family breaks up in spring, shortly before the parents nest again. Young cranes then join flocks of nonbreeding birds, and most do not breed until they are 2 to 7 years old.

Lifespan

Sandhill cranes are long-lived birds with low breeding rates. Once they become independent, an average crane lives around seven years, but many live 20 years or more. According to bird-banding records, the oldest known wild sandhill crane was at least 36 years old.

Predators and threats

Eggs and colts are taken by coyotes, foxes, raccoons, mink, ravens, crows and great horned owls. Adults have fewer enemies, but bobcats and eagles can kill them. Cranes defend themselves and their young by spreading their wings, hissing, kicking and stabbing with their sharp bills.

The main human-related threats are the loss of wetlands and river habitat, especially along the Platte River, where water diversion lets shrubs and trees take over the open sandbars cranes need for roosting. Collisions with power lines, disturbance and, in the resident southern subspecies, habitat development add to the pressure. The species is legally harvested in a number of states under regulated seasons.

Conservation status

The IUCN Red List classifies the sandhill crane as Least Concern, and its population is increasing. The species was nearly wiped out east of the Mississippi River by the 1930s, and fewer than 1,000 greater sandhill cranes may have remained by about 1940. Protection under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and wetland conservation brought a strong recovery, and the eastern population was estimated at nearly 100,000 birds in 2018.

Two subspecies remain rare. The Mississippi sandhill crane numbered fewer than 35 birds when its national wildlife refuge was created in 1975, and it survives today thanks to captive breeding and releases. The Cuban sandhill crane numbers a few hundred birds. Both are listed as endangered under the US Endangered Species Act.

Myths and facts

Myth: Brown sandhill cranes are a different species. Fact: they are ordinary gray cranes stained by mud they preen into their feathers.

Myth: Cranes and herons are the same kind of bird. Fact: they belong to different orders. Cranes fly with their necks stretched straight, and herons fly with them folded into an S shape.

Fact: Sandhill cranes have helped other cranes. In early efforts to restore the endangered whooping crane, sandhill cranes were used as foster parents. The experiment failed because the young whooping cranes imprinted on their foster species, but sandhill cranes later helped in another way: in the 1990s, the idea of leading young cranes on migration behind ultralight aircraft was tested on sandhill cranes before it was used with whooping cranes.

Relationship with people

Sandhill cranes draw large crowds of birdwatchers. Crane festivals take place in Nebraska, New Mexico, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Tennessee and California, and the spring migration along the Platte brings visitors from around the world.

In parts of the Midwest, cranes now feed in farm fields where they can damage newly planted corn, so farmers and conservation groups work together on solutions. In Florida, resident cranes have adapted to suburbs, golf courses and lawns, where people can watch them closely. Feeding cranes is discouraged and illegal in Florida, because it makes the birds bold around roads and people.