Migrations
Home		 Animal
Migrations		 Human
Migrations		 Dance/Art

Sandhill Cranes Migration Facts

Location/Distance

  • Sandhill Cranes fly across the middle of North America. They migrate to Mexico and the southern United States in the fall and then migrate back to the northern areas of Canada, Alaska, and northern Siberia in the spring.
  • These cranes stop in the middle of their flight to rest, eat, mate, and regain their strength. Popular regions for this stop are the Lodi region of California and the Platte River region in Nebraska.

Sandhill Cranes Map
http://www.aldoleopold.org/images/magazine/Sandhill%20Crane%20All.jpg

  

Mating

  • They are monogamous. Once they choose a partner to breed with they remain together for many years. They even stay together through migration periods.
  • They nest in the northern regions of North America in the spring.

   

Feeding

  • They are omnivores feeding on grains and seeds and also some small insects.
  • During their stop in the middle of migration the birds gain up to 20% total body weight.
  • They graze in cornfields and in the wetlands. They eat alfalfa and other food in the wet meadows that give the cranes essential nutrients not found in corn.

Sandhill Crane
  

Migration Cues

  • When the cold starts to make the insect life in the north decrease the birds begin to fly south
 

Navigational Mechanisms

  • The young learn the migration route from their parents.