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Cranes
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Height: 4 to 5 feet
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Wing Span: 6 to 7 feet
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Weight: Male 12 pounds, Female 9 1/2 pounds.
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Food: Wide variety of plants and animals: snails, crayfish,
worms, mice. birds. frogs, snakes, insects, acorns,
roots, seeds, fruits, occasionally fish, and very fond
of waste grains following the harvesting of corn, wheat,
barley. etc.
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Dancing: consists of bowing and jumping, into the air.
Functions in courtship, sexual synchronization for mating,
and release of aggressive energies.
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Cranes are among the oldest living birds on the planet. Fossil
records place cranes in Nebraska more than nine million years ago,
long before there was a Platte River, which by comparison, is a
youthful 10,000 years of age. Sandhill cranes have adapted well
to the change in landscapes over time and their populations are
healthy and continue to rise. Cranes are omnivorous, eating both
plant and animal materials. With the abundance of cropland in the
Platte River valley, corn makes up nearly 90 percent of their diet,
providing carbohydrates for fat production. Wet meadows along the
river provide invertebrates that make up the remainder of their
diet. Worms and snails provide protein, with the snail shell being
a source of calcium that is essential for egg development.
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| Bird rescue & bird adoption;
parrot refuge/rescue & placement for unwanted birds. |
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| Check out our list of local
birds broken down by your state and different types of
species. |
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| Migrating birds stay on track
because of chemical reactions in their bodies that are
influenced by the Earth's magnetic field... |
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Part
I
March
3, 2006