East African Crowned Crane

by Lisa Wooten

Title

East African Crowned Crane

Artist

Lisa Wooten

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

Featured: Natures Landscapes Landmarks and Wildlife 5/20/2015

East African Crowned Crane. Description
East African crowned cranes are elegant birds, reaching 3 to 4 feet tall with long legs and necks. They are mostly gray in color with bare, white facial patches, red fleshy wattles and a crown of golden-yellow feathers. Males and females look alike.
Range and Natural History
Found in groups of up to 150 birds, crowned cranes have been seen in a wide variety of areas including open grassland, garbage dumps, freshly plowed fields and amongst herds of domestic cattle from just south of the Sahara to the southeastern tip of South Africa. The largest breeding concentrations are in swampy areas of Kenya and Uganda surrounding Lake Victoria to the north.
They eat a wide variety of vegetation and insects as well as an occasional lizard. At Riverbanks Zoo, they are fed a specialized pellet diet in addition to insects, which they find in their enclosure.
Courtship displays by both males and females feature elaborate dances with bowing, flaring of wings and leaping into the air. These dances are learned by young birds from their parents and are not instinctive. For that reason, young birds remain with their parents long after they are able to feed themselves so that they can learn as much as possible.
Normally built in tall grass for protection, their nests may contain one to four eggs. Kneeling on the ground and peering above the grass, the yellow-crowned adults are almost perfectly camouflaged.
Incubation is shared by both parents for about 30 days. Chicks are somewhat independent at hatching, being completely mobile at only two days of age. Both adults provide protection and feed the chicks small insects flushed out by stamping their feet in the grass.
Chicks are easy to hand rear successfully. Even though hand-reared offspring are healthy and well adjusted to zoo life, they lack the important aspects of natural behavior that are learned from their parents, especially breeding behavior, displays and vocalizations. Riverbanks, therefore, chooses to parent-rear all crane chicks whenever possible. Seeing parents with offspring provides exciting experiences for visitors and staff, allowing them to witness one of nature�s finest moments first hand. Wikipedia

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May 1st, 2015

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