Cranes

The name crane means “squawk” or “hoarse caller” and mimics the sounds the bird makes. The birds are unmistakable with their red, white, and black markings on their heads.

Characteristics

What do cranes look like?

Cranes are easy to recognize at first glance: their shape, with their long legs and long neck, resembles a stork. But they are quite a bit bigger and grow to around 120 centimeters. They are about 115 centimeters long from beak to tail and have a wingspan of up to 240 centimeters.

They are surprisingly light for their size: they weigh a maximum of seven kilograms. Cranes are gray in color, the head and neck are black with a white stripe down the side. They have a bright red spot on the top of their heads called the crown of the head. Its beak is about as long as its head.

If you see cranes striding around in the meadows, it often looks as if they have a bushy feathered tail. However, this does not consist of tail feathers: these are the unusually long feathers of the wings! The actual tail feathers, on the other hand, are quite short. Crane males are slightly larger than females, otherwise, they look the same. When cranes are young, they are gray-brown in color and the head is reddish-brown.

Cranes are the only bird that only molts every two years: in the summer, they are unable to fly during the weeks when they are changing their feathers.

Where do cranes live?

Cranes used to be widespread in almost all of Europe. Because it is becoming increasingly rare for them to find suitable habitats, they are now only found in northern and eastern Europe and in Russia to eastern Siberia. They have disappeared from western and southern Europe since the mid-19th century.

A few animals can still be found in eastern and northern Germany, otherwise, they can only be observed migrating from the breeding grounds to the winter quarters in Spain, southern France, and north-west Africa: Then in spring and autumn around 40,000 to 50,000 cranes migrate over Central Europe away. If you are lucky, you can then see them in their rest areas in northern Germany.

Cranes need open areas with swamps, bogs, and wet meadows where they can forage. In their wintering areas, they look for places with fields and trees. Cranes are not only to be found in the lowlands but also in the mountains – sometimes even at an altitude of more than 2000 meters.

What types of cranes are there?

Today there are said to be around 340,000 cranes left. But in Europe, only 45,000 pairs breed and in Germany only about 3000 pairs. There are about 15 different crane species. Relatives of the European crane are the Crowned Crane, Damsel Crane, White-naped Crane, and Red-crowned Crane. Sandhill cranes live in North America and north-eastern Siberia and Wattled cranes in Africa.

How old do cranes get?

It has been proven that a captive crane lived to be 42 years old. In nature, they probably don’t reach such a high age: researchers suspect that they only live to be 25 to 30 years old.

Behave

How do cranes live?

Cranes are actually diurnal birds, only during migration do they also travel at night. Cranes are sociable. Very large groups usually live together, search for food together and sleep together. These groups also stay together during the migration to and from the winter quarters.

Cranes are quite shy. If you approach them more than 300 meters, they usually flee. They also notice exactly when something has changed in their environment. They are a little less shy at their gathering places, where they feel safer in large groups.

Cranes migrate to their winter quarters via two different routes. Birds from Finland and western Russia fly to Northeast Africa via Hungary. Cranes from Scandinavia and Central Europe migrate to France and Spain, sometimes as far as North Africa.

In mild winters, however, some animals stay in Germany. On the train, you can recognize them by the typical wedge formation and the trumpet-like calls. On their train, they stop at the same rest areas year after year. They sometimes stay there for two or three weeks to rest and feed extensively.

Cranes are majestic birds and have fascinated humans for thousands of years. In China, they were considered a symbol of long life and wisdom. In ancient Egypt, they were worshiped as “sunbirds” and sacrificed to the gods. However, they were also considered a treat and were eaten.

In Sweden, they were called “birds of happiness” because the sun and warmth came back with them in the spring. In Japan, too, the crane is considered a lucky bird.