The Whooping Crane

A Rare and Endangered Bird

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Information about the Crane and its Habitat, Courtship plus More Facts

The Whooping Crane - A Rare and Endangered Bird

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Crane History and Legend


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Continued from Crane - Information about the Bird and its Habitat, Courtship plus More Facts.

The white Whooping crane of North America is a very rare but majestic creature.  It is the largest crane with a wingspan spread of approximately 2.1 metres, and is in fact he tallest bird in North America, standing around 5 feet high.

The adults have a white plumage, possessing a red crown on the top surface of the head. The bill is long and of a dark colouration. The neck is prolongated and the legs are long. The tips of the wings are black.  They fly like all Cranes with an outstretched neck, the black wingtips contrasting clearly in flight with the otherwise purely white plumage.

The nest is built on the ground, into which the female has lays 1 to 3 eggs. Normally only one chick survives per season.  Wooping Cranes are able to mate at the age of 5 and are thought to live to an old-age of 20 years.

The Whooping crane ranks among the rarest birds in the world.  There was a time in was once far more common throughout the entire Midwest of North America, living in marshes of  this western zone of the continent.   The population was estimated at around 1,500 in the 18th Century,  but in 1941 there were only 21 birds in the wild. Such a drastic population decrease of these Cranes is due primarily to the loss of habitat.  Since 1941 the number of birds has increased somewhat, due to their protection, but as at the year 2005 there were still only about 325 whooping cranes left in the wild, with a further 119 kept in captivity.

The majority of the wild Whooping Crane population resides in the Wood Buffalo National Park, in Canada, although they winter about 4,000 km South, in the 115,000 acre Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, about 35 miles North East of Rockport in Texas.  Meanwhile, in Florida a small population of Whooping cranes survive who do not migrate.  This Florida population was purposefully created to raise a separate group of Whooping Cranes, in order to reduce the risk that a disease outbreak or a natural catastrophe in the Canadian breeding area could result in a complete loss of the wild population.
 
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