Cranes

Sandhill cranes are smaller than whooping cranes. They are generally light-gray in color, with a red crown, black legs, and white cheeks. There are large breeding populations in Siberia, Alaska, and northern Canada east of James Bay, as well as in the western and central United States. There are six subspecies of sandhill crane. Three of them—the greater, lesser, and Canadian sandhill cranes—are migratory birds. The other three—Florida, Mississippi, and Cuban—do not migrate. The lesser sandhill, which is the smallest subspecies (less than 4 ft (1.2 m) tall and weighing no more than 8 lb (3.6 kg)) migrates the greatest distance. Many birds that winter in Texas and northern Mexico nest in Siberia.

The populations of sandhill cranes were greatly reduced by hunting and habitat loss in the 1930s and 1940s. However, wherever protected, they have been making a good comeback. One population in Indiana increased from 35 to 14,000 over a 40-year period. In one of the most amazing sights in nature, perhaps half a million sandhill cranes land on the sandbars of the Platte River in Nebraska while they are migrating.