Long-legged Sandhill Cranes perform their wild dances year-round in open wetlands and short-grass prairies near water. This tall, grey relative of coots and rails takes up to seven years to reach adulthood, pairs for life, and lives up to 61 years in captivity. Hunting Sandhill Cranes is legal, but closely monitored in North America, except on native lands.

Sandhill Cranes breed across most of Canada, west of Quebec, and across Alaska. In the United States, this crane breeds from Michigan northwest through Wisconsin, and in four distinct populations from California to Colorado. Wintering grounds include Texas and northern Mexico. Permanent resident populations still exist in Mississippi, Florida, and Cuba.

 

A legend for the range map to the right can be found here.

The Mississippi Sandhill Crane subspecies is endangered, and the Florida Sandhill Crane is state-threatened. Intensive breeding programs and careful management have stabilized or increased all North American Sandhill Crane populations.

Hunting, pesticides, and habitat alteration have contributed to this species' decline in the previous two centuries. Compared to historic numbers, all Sandhill Crane populations are low. Recovery is slow because successful pairs usually only produce one chick per year, and young cranes do not mate until their fourth year.

 

Along the Gulf Coast from the Florida Panhandle to Louisiana, the destruction of savannah and open, mature pine forests caused the near-extinction of the Mississippi Sandhill Crane. Since 1965, a captive breeding program has increased the wild population of this subspecies from less than 30 to about 100 individuals. However, nearly 90% of the free-flying Mississippi Sandhill Cranes have been raised in captivity. The viability of this subspecies depends upon the protection and restoration of pine forests and savannahs, the return of natural water cycles to revive old wetlands, and farming practices that benefit Sandhill Cranes.

 

The other Sandhill Crane populations depend on a few critical sites for wintering and migrating. Nearly 80% of mid-continental Sandhill Cranes gather along the Platte River in Nebraska. Such sites must be preserved and enhanced to insure the species' continued recovery. Given the right conditions, Sandhill Cranes may return to previously abandoned sites; in Ohio, a small breeding population reestablished itself in 1987 after a 60-year absence.

Enjoy the spectacle of Sandhill Cranes on their spring staging grounds, particularly Nebraska's Platte River. View the cranes at Audubon Nebraska's Rowe Sanctuary's Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area; look for wintering flocks in the saline lakes of west Texas; or at Gautier, Mississippi's Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge., or Indiana

 

Stay out of Sandhill Crane breeding territories in order to benefit the birds and to avoid their formidable and potentially hazardous defense.

 

Sandhill Cranes browse in farmlands containing stubble and some waste grain. Encourage late plowing and mowing to benefit the cranes and many other species during migration.

 

Grains and grasses planted in conservation easements and on protected lands can encourage Sandhill Cranes to re-colonize former strongholds. Read about the Sandhill Cranes in Ohio and learn how you can help them.

 

For other actions you can take, including Audubon activities, please visit our resources page.

Visit our resources page for more information about this species.

Kaufman, Kenn. Lives of North American Birds. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, 1996.

 

Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge. National Wetlands Research Center (USGS), Lafayette, LA.

 

Ohio Division of Wildlife Life History Notes: Sandhill Crane. State Endangered Species Publication 382 (399). Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

 

Sibley, David Allen. 2000. The Sibley Guide to Birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

 

Tacha, T. C., S. A. Nesbit, and P. A. Vohs. 1992. Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis). InThe Birds of North America, No. 31 (A. Poole, P. Stettenheim, and F. Gill, eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, DC: The American Ornithologist's Union.