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About cranes
They're big!
- Cranes stand up to four feet (1.2 m) tall and are 20 per cent larger than a grey heron. They're our tallest breeding bird, with a wingspan up to eight feet (2.2-2.45 m) – even bigger than a white-tailed eagle!
They like to dance and be social
- Cranes are social birds, gregarious for most of the year
- They're faithful partners, with pair-bonds apparently life-long
- Cranes' dancing display is performed by solitary birds, pairs and flocks throughout the year, but most frequent in spring
- Their bugling call is one of the loudest and most striking of all bird calls and can be heard up to three miles away
Cranes need space
- Cranes live for up to 14 years. They don't breed until they're about four years old
- During the breeding season, breeding pairs disperse to suitable breeding pools, but non-breeding adults and adolescent birds form groups of six to 10 birds in summering grounds
- Pairs usually lay two eggs, in most years raising only one chick. Young leave the nest within a day, but are fed by their parents for up to 10 weeks
- Cranes breed in a wide range of wetland habitats including wet meadows, wet woodlands, swamps and reedbeds
- They must have breeding pools free from disturbance and large feeding areas (especially unimproved grassland, swamp and reedbed). Each breeding pair needs about three-quarters of a square mile (200 hectares) of feeding habitat, supporting large numbers of grasshoppers, spiders and other invertebrates for their chicks
- They are omnivorous and take a wide range of prey, including worms, snails, arthropods, frogs, lizards, snakes, rodents. Generally vegetarian in winter. Adult cranes fly up to 12.5 miles (20 km) to feed
- Crane nests are wet mounds of vegetation in small, permanently wet areas of about 5,000 square metres (half a hectare). Eggs are laid in April to early May, with incubation lasting 28-31 days and chicks fledging at 65-70 days
Keeping safe
- In winter, cranes need safe roosting sites such as shallow open water and reedbeds, and suitable feeding areas such as cereal stubbles and wet grassland
- Suitable roosting and feeding sites may occur some distance apart and birds commute between roosts and feeding sites during the day where necessary
- Every three or so years the birds undergo a moult where they become flightless for a few weeks. Safe and undisturbed roosting areas are critical during this vulnerable stage.
Last modified: 09 July 2009