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Common Crane

Common Crane

Grus grus

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The Common Crane is a tall, grey crane of the Palearctic, the only crane widespread in Europe, ranging east across Siberia. Adults have a black-and-white head and neck with a bare red crown, and their far-carrying trumpeting calls and exuberant dances are hallmarks of the species. It breeds in bogs and marshes and migrates in noisy V-shaped flocks to winter in southern Europe, North Africa and southern Asia, gathering in huge numbers at traditional stopover sites.

Did you know?

  • Migrating cranes can fly at great heights, and their trumpeting can be heard long before the flock is seen.
  • Breeding cranes deliberately paint their feathers brown with mud, which helps them hide on the nest.

Voice

Flight call

About the species

Identification

A very large, mainly grey bird with a black head and upper neck, a white stripe from the eye down the neck and a bare red patch on the crown; young birds have a plain brownish head. Drooping tertials form a “bustle” over the tail. Breeding birds may look rusty on the back from bog water staining the feathers. In flight it holds its neck outstretched, unlike the Grey Heron, which flies with its neck folded.

Family

Gruidae

Size

Very large (swan)

Colours

grey, black, white, red

About the habitat

Breeds in quiet wetlands – bogs, fens, marshy forest clearings and lake shores – often feeding in nearby meadows and fields. On migration and in winter open farmland, wet meadows and shallow lakes or bays.

Diet

Omnivorous: grain, seeds, roots, tubers, shoots and berries, as well as insects, earthworms, snails, amphibians and small vertebrates. Outside the breeding season it feeds largely on farmland.

Behaviour

Usually in pairs or family groups when breeding, becoming very gregarious on migration and in winter. It walks slowly while foraging and roosts standing in shallow water. Pairs perform elaborate dances – leaping, bowing and tossing vegetation – and give loud duets. Every few years adults moult all their flight feathers at once and are flightless for about six weeks, hiding in cover.

Sources

Photo: Andreas Trepte, CC BY-SA 2.5 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Common crane grus grus.jpg

Sound: Pálos Lőrinc, XC594758, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/594758

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_crane

See also