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Sandhill Crane
[Antigone canadensis]
[Length 41 (Lesser) to 46 (Greater) in. Wingspan 73 (Lesser) to 77 (Greater) in.]
Sandhill Cranes breed throughout northeastern Siberia, northwestern Canada, and Alaska, the Great Basin, and the Great Lakes states of the US.
They winter in the southwestern US and Mexico.
There is also a small non-migratory group which breeds in central Florida.
Their bugling calls carry great distances, and they are often heard long before they are seen.
Every year Sandhill Cranes migrate north to their breeding grounds, stopping at a "staging" area along the Platte River in southcentral Nebraska to refuel for the long flight northward.
This area is crucial to their survival, as approximately 500,000 of these majestic birds (nearly 90 percent of the entire world's population) stop here for five weeks every spring.
These were photographed on a gray, November day near Corpus Christi, Texas, USA.
Photo taken with a Nikkor 300mm ED f4.5 lens on Kodachrome 64 film.
(Date: March 1980)
(use image name "crans1" for inquiries)
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