Sandhill Cranes
Locations near Fort Collins:
- Occasionally spotted in fields and on lakes north of Fort Collins during the spring migration
- Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in NM during winter
- Near Kearney, NE during spring migration (see Rowe Sanctuary web site below)
- Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge, Monte Vista, CO
- San Luis Valley National Wildlife Refuges during spring and fall migrations
When in the Fort Collins area:
Sandhill cranes migrate north through Colorado during March and early April from their winter nesting areas in northern Mexico and Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. Cranes travel to their summer nesting grounds in the Yellowstone ecosystem, where they will give birth and raise their young until fall. During the fall migration, the cranes travel back through Colorado, making stops in the San Luis Valley on their way back to New Mexico and Mexico.
For the cranes that live further north in Canada, they usually use the Central Flyway, which crosses over the Midwest. The best place to see this very large migration – estimated to be a half million cranes each spring – is near Kearney, NE. Rowe Sanctuary is a fantastic place to get up close and personal with the cranes as they roost on the Platte River at night and then take off in the thousands at daybreak.
Notes:
Sandhill cranes are some of the oldest living birds on the planet, with fossil records dating back 9 million years.
There are several subspecies of sandhill cranes with the greater sandhill cranes being the most common in Colorado. The greater sandhill stands up to four feet tall and has a wingspan of close to seven feet. These tall and elegant birds have a slate or brown-gray color, often with rust stains from the iron in tundra waters. The distinct marking of the adult sandhill crane is the red forehead, which seems to glow red in mating season.
Sandhills nest in wetlands and shallow marshes in northern U.S., Canada, Alaska and Siberia. Hundreds of thousands of these birds will travel south to Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Mexico to winter in warmer climates where they can feed on grains in farm fields. During their spring migration through Colorado and other Midwest states, sandhill cranes will find layover points on rivers, such as the Platte River, with abundant nearby farm fields. The cranes will roost in the river at night and take off each morning in a mass exodus to the corn fields surrounding the rivers. The birds eat the leftover kernels to build fat reserves for their remaining flight north. The cranes also perform their display “dance” in the fields during the day. This ritual, thought to be a part of the mating process, helps build pair bonds. Large flocks of cranes return again each night to the river.
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