By Jan Axelson
Northside News
With a height of 4 feet or more, a wingspan that can exceed 6 feet, and a loud, bugling call, sandhill cranes are hard to miss. On the Northside, sandhill cranes nest in Cherokee Marsh and Warner Park.
Adult cranes have gray feathers, but on arriving at their breeding grounds, the birds preen their feathers with local soil, giving them a rusty brown color. A red crown patch completes the look.
Most cranes build their nests in or near wetlands. The female lays 1–3 eggs that the pair incubates for about 30 days. After the young hatch, the family ventures out in search of food.
Cranes eat a varied diet that may include berries, tubers, grains, rodents, insects, snails, frogs, lizards, and other birds and their eggs. Red-winged blackbirds will boldly harass a crane to keep it from eating their eggs or young.
Studies have shown that only about half of cranes survive to fall migration. Crane parents must protect their eggs and young from predators that include foxes, raccoons, coyotes, crows, hawks, owls and eagles. The young that survive gather in flocks until they form breeding pairs at 2–7 years old. Cranes mate for life.
While most Wisconsin cranes migrate to Florida, in recent years, some birds have wintered as far north as Indiana, giving them a jump on finding a nest site in spring. The cranes usually begin to arrive in our area in March, after snowmelt. If you’re lucky, you may see a pair of cranes bowing and leaping in a graceful dance most often performed during spring courtship.
In the 1930s, hunting and the draining of wetlands reduced the number of cranes to just a few dozen breeding pairs in the entire state. Thanks to the ending of most hunting and the restoring of wetlands, the numbers have rebounded to over 40,000 birds statewide.
One thing we can do to help cranes is to refrain from actively feeding them. The International Crane Foundation advises that it can be dangerous for both cranes and people for the birds to associate humans with food. Because cranes seem to have little fear of vehicle traffic, keep an eye out for them when driving on local streets.
Learn more about cranes at savingcranes.org.
