Flying Common cranes - Leif Sohlman is a photograph by Leif Sohlman which was uploaded on December 24th, 2013.
Title
Flying Common cranes - Leif Sohlman
Artist
Leif Sohlman
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Photograph - Photo
Description
flying common cranes - Leif Sohlman
Canon 5D mk III
The Common Crane is a large, stately bird and a medium-sized crane. It is 100�130 cm (40�52 in) tall with a 180�240 cm (71�96 in) wingspan. The body weight can range from 3 to 6.1 kg (6.6 to 13 lb), with the nominate subspecies averaging around 5.4 kg (12 lb) and the eastern subspecies (G. g. lilfordi) averaging 4.6 kg (10 lb). Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 50.7�60.8 cm (20.0�23.9 in) long, the tarsus is 20.1�25.2 cm (7.9�9.9 in) and the exposed culmen is 9.5�11.6 cm (3.7�4.6 in).
This species is slate-grey overall. The forehead and lores are blackish with a bare red crown and a white streak extending from behind the eyes to the upper back. The overall colour is darkest on the back and rump and palest on the breast and wings. The primaries, the tips of secondaries, the alula, the tip of the tail, and the edges of upper tail coverts are all black and the greater coverts droop into explosive plumes. This combination of colouration ultimately distinguishes it from similar species in Asia, like the Hooded and Black-necked Cranes. The juvenile has yellowish-brown tips to its body feathers and lacks the drooping wing feathers and the bright neck pattern of the adult, and has a fully feathered crown. Every two years, before migration, the adult Common Crane undergoes a complete moult, remaining flightless for six weeks, until the new feathers grow.
It has a loud trumpeting call, given in flight and display. The call is piercing and can be heard from a considerable distance. It has a dancing display, leaping with wings uplifted, described in detail below.
The Common Crane is a fairly social bird while not breeding. Flocks of up to 400 birds may be seen flying together during migration. Staging sites, where migrating birds gather to rest and feed in the middle of their migration, may witness thousands of cranes gathering at once. However, the flocks of the species are not stable social units but rather groups that ensure greater safety in numbers and collectively draw each other's attention to ideal foraging and roosting sites. Possibly due to a longer moult, younger and non-breeding cranes are usually the earliest fall migrants and may band together at that time of year.
There are few natural predators of adult cranes, although White-tailed Eagle and Golden Eagles are a potential predatory threat to Common Cranes of all ages. The crane has been known to counterattack eagles both on the land and in mid-flight, using their bill as a weapon and kicking with their feet. Mammals such as wild boar, wolverine and red foxes are attacked at the nest, as they are potential predators. When facing off against mammals, cranes jab with their bill, hit with their wings and kick with their feet. The cranes nimbly avoid strikes against themselves by jumping into the air. Herbivorous mammals such as red deer may also be attacked at the nest, indicating the high aggressiveness of the birds while nesting. The determined attack of a parent crane often assures safety from predators, but occasional losses to predation are inevitable. The carrion crow is locally a successful predator of Common Cranes' eggs, trickily using distraction displays to steal them. Other species of Corvus may also cause some loss of eggs, with Common Ravens also taking some small chicks as well.[3][4] Common Cranes may loosely associate with any other crane in the Grus genus in migration or winter as well as greater white-fronted geese and bean geese.
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December 24th, 2013
