Antigone canadensis

Sandhill cranes are tall, long-necked, long-legged birds with a clump of feathers that droops over the rump. They fly with the neck and legs fully extended. Adults are gray overall (may have brownish-red staining resulting from preening with muddy bill), with a whitish chin, cheek, and upper throat, and dull red skin on the crown and lores (lacking in immatures). Immatures have a pale to tawny, feathered head and neck, and a gray body with brownish-red mottling. Average length is around 41 inches( 104 cm), wingspan about 73 inches (185 cm), but size varies geographically.

Breeding habitat includes open grasslands, marshes, marshy edges of lakes and ponds, and river banks (Terres 1980). Nests are on the ground or in shallow water on open tundra, large marshes, bogs, fens, or wet forest meadows. Individuals exhibit high fidelity to breeding territories (see Littlefield 1995). During the nonbreeding season, sandhill cranes roost at night in shallow water along river channels, on alluvial islands of braided rivers, or in natural basin wetlands. A communal roost site consisting of an open expanse of shallow water is a key feature of wintering habitat (California Department of Fish and Game 1990). Along the North Platte River in spring, roosts are generally in shallow water (< 20 cm), 11-50 m from the nearest visual obstruction, and away from paved or gravel roads, single dwellings, and bridges (Norling et al. 1992). See also Folk and Tacha (1990) for a description of roost site characteristics in the North Platte River Valley. Cranes migrating in spring through interior Alaska often roost on river overflow ice of the Tanana River or on the ice of ponds and lakes (Johnsgard 1991). Feeding and resting often occur in fields and agricultural lands.

Gregarious in winter and in migration.

Nests may contain eggs from late February to late May in Florida (mean laying date mid-March), mainly in April in mid-U.S., and primarily mid-May in the north. Both sexes, in turn, incubate usually 2 eggs 28-30 days. Young are tended by both parents, begin flying at about 2 months, remain with parents until following year. Usually only one chick survives to fledging.

Females usually renest if a clutch lost or abandoned (interval between clutches 18-20 days in Florida, Nesbitt 1988). Individuals may pair as early as age 3 years, but more commonly at 5-6 years. In mid-continental North America, most recruitment is by cranes older than 7 years.