One of the most spectacular birds in the world spends its

winters right here in Tulare County.  At Pixley National

Wildlife Refuge in the south county, between 4,000 and

6,000 Sandhill Cranes arrive in the Fall to feed in agricultural

fields by day and to shelter at night in the ponds at Pixley

NWR.  The ponds protect them from predators like

and bobcats. Every evening just after sunset, small flocks

of Sandhill Cranes begin to fly in until dozens or hundreds can

be seen in every direction.  Their distinctive bugling calls can

heard for miles. They have an elongated coiled trachea allowing their distinctive calls to travel long distances. They are wary of humans, but will sometimes fly directly over the platform at Pixley if visitors are standing quietly. During the day, they can be seen in the distance feeding, often located most easily by rolling down the window and listening for the bugles. These tall elegant birds are pale silvery-gray with a bright red crown.  Many have rusty coloring on the wings from preening in the red clays of the north.  Sandhill Cranes mate for life and perform mating dances, leaping and flapping their wings facing each other, reinforcing old pair bonds. As they come in for the night, their voices recall a primordial world.  The oldest Sandhill Crane fossils are at least two million years old.

 

Sandhill Cranes breed across Canada, parts of Alaska and some northern US states.  During breeding the pairs are widely separated, usually choosing a marshy, isolated area and building an elevated nest of grasses. The young are called “colts’ and stay with the parents the first winter. They migrate in fall at altitudes as high as 20,000 ft and as much as 500 miles per day.  In Spring about 500,000 congregate on the Platte River in Nebraska before heading to breeding grounds in the North.  The Lesser Sandhill Crane, a subspecies, can fly up to 5,000 miles from California to Alaska, across the Bering Straits to Siberia in Spring. These populations are remaining stable.

 

There are 15 species of cranes worldwide and most of those are endangered.  The only other North American crane is the Whooping Crane. The pre-European contact population is thought to be 15,000.  This dropped to 23 birds in 1943. After intensive recovery efforts, today there are 800 total.  Sandhill Cranes were used to “teach” young Whooping Cranes to migrate and save them from extinction.