Sandhill Cranes

A little about Sandhill Cranes…

The Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis) is a large crane of North America and extreme northeastern Siberia.

It has one of the longest fossil histories of any extant bird. A 10-million-year-old crane fossil from Nebraska is often cited as being of this species, but this may be from a prehistoric relative or the direct ancestor of the Sandhill Crane and may not belong in the genus Grus. The oldest unequivocal Sandhill Crane fossil is “just” 2.5 million years old, over one and a half times older than the earliest remains of most living species of birds, which are primarily found from after the Pliocene/Pleistocene boundary some 1.8 million years ago.

Crane Facts

Fiercely loyal to their roosting and foraging grounds, the oldest extant bird species, so that this usage could go back millions of years.
The life history of the crane revolves around the family unit; when you see a large flock of cranes, what you are really seeing is numerous families.
The crane’s call is considered to have the widest range of any bird call, which enables these birds to keep their family units together.
When you are talking about noise impacts from construction, it means disrupting this important communication to keep the family together.
The greater sandhill crane rarely feeds more than two miles from its roost site, so disturbance anywhere in this range will potentially have substantial negative impacts due to this species’ limited landscape use.
The number one cause of mortality in our region is from birds striking transmission lines.
Any disruption will likely cause stress, which could result in reduced breeding success when they return north for breeding and nesting.
The original decline of the greater sandhill in California was due to the early miners in the foothills who hunted and ate them – ironic that the next California legacy, the proposed twin water tunnels, could reverse an improving population trend.