Sandhill Crane
Welcome to this week’s Wildlife of the Week!
Now is the perfect time to feature the Sandhill Crane as our Wildlife of the Week. The cranes are starting to arrive by the hundreds right now as cold weather sweeps through the Midwest. Our biweekly waterfowl surveys are counting increasing flocks.
Sandhill cranes are relatively new visitors to the refuge. They started showing up here in the early 1990's and they have steadily increased since. During our last 2023-2024 season we set a new record for sandhill crane visitors with over 30,000 counted on the refuge.
They are large birds, about 4-1/2 foot tall with a six to seven foot wingspan. Adults are gray overall with red foreheads, white cheeks, and long pointed bills.Both sexes are identical in appearance. In flight, their legs trail behind, and their long necks are straight. Our other large gray wading bird, the great blue heron, tucks its neck in flight, a good way to distinguish between the two. Juveniles lack the characteristic red foreheads, making it possible to distinguish the children from the parents.
Sandhill Cranes forage in open fields, grasslands, and wetlands. They often roost in deeper water of rivers or lakes, where they are safe from predators. They are mainly herbivorous, but they will eat various types of food, depending on availability. They probe agricultural fields for seeds, insects and even small mammals and wade shallow wetlands for vegetation and small crustaceans, insects, snails and amphibians. Cranes readily eat cultivated crops such as corn, wheat, cottonseed, and sorghum. They benefit greatly from the refuge's cooperative farming agreements which leave a percentage of farm crops in the fields for their consumption.
Sandhill cranes migrate to Wheeler from the Great Lakes states and southern Canada and start to show up here around the beginning of November. The will overwinter with us and head
back north to mate, nest and raise their young around February.
Fun Fact: Sandhill Cranes are known for their dancing skills. Courting cranes stretch their wings, pump their heads, bow, and leap into the air in a graceful and energetic dance.
Sandhill cranes will be a common sight on the refuge for the next three months, come on out and witness the spectacle. (Photos by Tom Ress)