Sandhill crane

In 1750, British naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the sandhill crane in the third volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds, referring to the species as the 'Brown and Ash-colour'd Crane.' Edwards based his hand-colored etching on a preserved specimen that had been brought to London from the Hudson Bay area of Canada by James Isham. When in 1758, Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the 10th edition, he placed the sandhill crane with herons and cranes in the genus Ardea. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Ardea canadensis, and cited Edwards' work. The sandhill crane was formerly placed in the genus Grus, but a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2010 found that the genus, as then defined, was polyphyletic. In the resulting rearrangement to create monophyletic genera, four species, including the sandhill crane, were placed in the resurrected genus Antigone that had originally been erected by German naturalist Ludwig Reichenbach in 1853. The specific epithet canadensis is the modern Latin word for "from Canada". Five subspecies are recognised: ==Description==

Adults are gray overall; during breeding, their plumage is usually much worn and stained, particularly in the migratory populations, and looks nearly ochre. The average weight of the larger males is , while the average weight of females is , with a range of across the subspecies. The juveniles do not have the characteristic red foreheads, making distinguishing the young from the parents possible, even when they are the same height. The sexes look alike. Sizes vary among the different subspecies; the typical height of these birds is around . Their wing chords are typically , tails are , the exposed culmens are long, and the tarsi measure . Wingspan is 200 cm (78.7 in). These cranes frequently give a loud, trumpeting call that suggests a rolled "r" in the throat, and they can be heard from a long distance. Mated pairs of cranes engage in "unison calling". The cranes stand close together, calling in a synchronized and complex duet. The female makes two calls for every one from the male. Sandhill cranes' large wingspans, typically , make them very skilled soaring birds, similar in style to hawks and eagles. but this may be from a prehistoric relative or ancestor of sandhill cranes, of a genus other than Grus and Antigone. The oldest unequivocal sandhill crane fossil is 2.5 million years old, Sandhill cranes occur in pastures, open prairies and freshwater wetlands in peninsular Florida from the Everglades to the Okefenokee Swamp. Some authorities no longer recognize Canadian sandhill crane as a distinct subspecies, as insignificant genetic differentiation and minimal morphological differentiation exist between the greater sandhill crane and it. The others can be somewhat more reliably distinguished in hand by measurements and plumage details, apart from the size differences already mentioned. Unequivocal identification often requires location information, which is often impossible in migrating birds. Analysis of control-region mtDNA haplotype data shows two major lineages. The arctic and the subarctic migratory population includes the lesser sandhill cranes. The other lineages can be divided into a migratory and some indistinct clusters, which can be matched to the resident subspecies. The lesser and greater sandhill cranes are quite distinct, their divergence dating to roughly 2.3–1.2 million years ago, sometime during the Late Pliocene or Early Pleistocene. Glaciation seemingly fragmented off a founder population of lesser sandhill cranes, because during each major ice age, its present breeding range was frozen year-round. Still, sandhill cranes are amply documented from fossil and subfossil remains right to the modern era. Conceivably, they might be considered distinct species already, a monotypic A. canadensis and the greater sandhill crane, A. pratensis, which would include the other populations. The scant differences between southern Canadian and western U.S. populations appear to result from genetic drift, due to the recent reduction in population and range fragmentation. Until the early 20th century, the southern migratory birds occupied a much larger and continuous range. Thus, the subspecies A. c. rowani may well be abandoned. The two southern U.S. resident populations are somewhat more distinct. The Cuban population has been comparatively little studied, but appears to have been established on the island for a long time. They and the migratory greater sandhill cranes proper may form a group of lineages that diverged much later from a range in the southern U.S. and maybe northern Mexico, where they were resident. The southern migratory population would then represent a later re-expansion, which (re)evolved their migratory habits independent from the northernmost birds, the geographically separated populations expanding rapidly when more habitat was available as the last ice age ended. ==Behavior==

Sandhill cranes are fairly social birds that usually live in pairs or family groups through the year. During migration and winter, unrelated cranes come together to form "survival groups" that forage and roost together. Such groups often congregate at migration and winter sites, sometimes in the thousands. Diet Sandhill cranes are mainly herbivorous, but eat various types of food, depending on availability. They often feed with their bills down to the ground as they root around for seeds and other foods, in shallow wetlands with vegetation or various upland habitats. Cranes readily eat cultivated foods such as corn, wheat, cottonseed, and sorghum. Waste corn is useful to cranes preparing for migration, providing them with nutrients for the long journey. In Oregon and California, the most serious predators of chicks are reportedly coyotes, ravens, raccoons, American mink, and great horned owls, roughly in descending order. Cranes of all ages can be hunted by both North American species of eagles, bobcats, and possibly American alligators. Additionally, even a much smaller peregrine falcon was reported to have successfully killed a adult sandhill crane in a stoop. In New Mexico, humans hunt them with a permit granted in a lottery draw during late fall. In total, 17 states allow hunting of sandhill cranes. Sandhill cranes defend themselves and their young from aerial predators by jumping and kicking. Actively brooding adults are more likely to react aggressively to potential predators to defend their chicks than wintering birds, which most often normally try to evade attacks on foot or in flight. For land predators such as dogs, foxes, and coyotes, they move forward, often hissing, with their wings open and bills pointed. If the predator persists, the crane stabs with its bill and kicks. File:Grus canadensis -Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico, USA-8.ogv|A huge flock at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico File:Baby Mississippi Sandhill Crane.JPG|A baby Mississippi sandhill crane is weighed at White Oak Conservation. File:Sc2sf.jpg|A human feeding a sandhill crane ==Status and conservation==

Mainland North America In the 1930s, sandhill cranes were generally extirpated east of the Mississippi River, but their populations have recovered, with an estimated 98,000 in the region in 2018, a substantial increase over the previous year. Although sandhill cranes are not considered threatened as a species, the three southernmost subspecies are quite rare. Resident populations, not migratory birds, cannot choose secure breeding habitat. Many subpopulations were destroyed by hunting or habitat change. The greater sandhill crane proper initially suffered most; by 1940, probably fewer than 1,000 birds remained. Populations have since increased greatly again. At nearly 100,000, they are still fewer than the lesser sandhill crane, which, at about 400,000 individuals continent-wide, is the most plentiful extant crane. Despite losses from hunting, interspecies competition and other pressures such as habitat loss, the species has expanded its range. Since the early 2000s, the sandhill crane has expanded both its winter (nonbreeding) and breeding ranges northward, including into upstate New York. In the 21st century, parts of the Midwestern United States have seen an extensive rebound of the species, especially in Wisconsin and Indiana. The transplantation of wild birds and introduction of captive-reared birds into suitable low-population areas have been called viable management techniques. The second viable egg from a two-egg nest was occasionally removed from the nests, starting in 1965, to become part of a captive flock. This breeding flock is divided between the Audubon Institute's Species Survival Center and White Oak Conservation in Yulee, Florida. These cranes have produced offspring for annual releases into the refuge. A Mississippi sandhill crane was the first bird to hatch from an egg fertilized by sperm that was thawed from a cryogenic state. This occurred at the Audubon Institute, as part of this subspecies' endangered species recovery plan. In January 2019, 25- to 30,000 cranes (both greater and lesser subspecies) were found wintering at the Whitewater Draw State Wildlife Area near McNeal in southeast Arizona. Sandhill cranes have been tried as foster parents for whooping cranes in reintroduction schemes. This failed when the whooping cranes imprinted on their foster parents, later did not recognize other whooping cranes as their conspecifics, and unsuccessfully tried to pair with sandhill cranes, instead. File:Sandhill Crane's.jpg|Florida sandhill crane, Ocala National Forest File:Sandhill Crane JCB.jpg|Sandhill crane at Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Florida File:Grus canadensis -British Columbia, Canada -upper body-8.jpg|In British Columbia, Canada File:Sandhillcranealaska.jpg|Sandhill cranes in Fairbanks, Alaska in May Cuba The Cuban sandhill crane (subspecies A. c. nesiotes) is not as rare as once believed, and while it remains threatened, its population is increasing. Based on very limited information, until the 1990s, it was typically believed to consist of about 300 birds. while surveys from 2004 to 2015 estimated that the population now was above 550. Subsequent reviews have placed the Cuban sandhill crane population around 700 birds in 2017. and Taiwan. In 2022, reports emerged of regular sightings of sandhill cranes in New Brunswick, on the Atlantic coast of Canada. The mythical Mothman, a humanoid creature reportedly seen in the Point Pleasant, West Virginia, area from November 1966 to December 1967, is thought to have originated from sightings of out-of-migration sandhill cranes. ==In popular culture==

In 2023, the "Mississippi sandhill crane" was featured on a United States Postal Service forever stamp as part of the Endangered Species set, based on a photograph from Joel Sartore's Photo Ark. The stamp was dedicated at a ceremony at the National Grasslands Visitor Center in Wall, South Dakota. ==Notes==