Cranes

Cranes are noted for their amazing dances that bond individual males and females together. These dances are elaborate and ballet-like, and are among the most intricate and beautiful in the animal kingdom. The cranes bow, leap high into the air, and twirl with their wings Whooping cranes. © U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Reproduced by permission held out like a skirt. However, this wonderful dance is not only a courtship dance because once a pair has bonded, they are mated for life. Cranes dance at other times, too, possibly as a way of relieving frustration, which might otherwise erupt into aggression. They also appear to dance for pleasure. Very young cranes start dancing with excitement.

A pair of cranes construct a raised nest of dried grasses by water. Either parent might start incubating as soon as the first egg is laid, although they usually lay two eggs. Crowned cranes often lay three eggs. The eggs hatch after about 28-31 days of incubation. Both parents feed the chicks and take care of them long past the time that they grow their adult feathers. The young are yellowish tan or grayish and very fuzzy. Once they reach adult size, their parents drive them away to establish lives of their own. The life spans of cranes vary considerably. Sandhill cranes rarely live more than 20 years. One Siberian crane (Bugeranus leucogeranus) was known to live 82 years, but 30-40 years is more usual.

While at their nesting site, most cranes go through a period of molting, or losing their feathers. Some of them have a period of up to a month during which so many feathers have been shed they are flightless.