Red-crowned Crane

About the red-crowned crane

The red-crowned crane, also called the Japanese crane or Manchurian crane, is a large Northeast Asian crane and among the rarest cranes in the world. In parts of its range it's regarded as a symbol of luck, longevity, and fidelity. Adults are named for a patch of bare red skin on the crown that brightens during the mating season, and their plumage is otherwise snow white with black on the wing secondaries — feathers that can look like a black tail when the bird is standing, though the true tail feathers are white. Males show black on the cheeks, throat, and neck, while females are pearly gray in the same spots; the bill is olive to greenish horn, the legs slate to grayish black.

This is among the largest and heaviest crane species, typically standing 150 to 158 cm (4 ft 11 in–5 ft 2 in) tall with a wingspan of 220 to 250 cm (7 ft 3 in–8 ft 2 in). Body weight usually runs 4.8 to 10.5 kg (11–23 lb), and can climb toward 12 kg (26 lb) in winter; on average it's the heaviest crane species, though the sarus and wattled crane can exceed it in height and linear measurements. Juveniles look quite different from adults, showing a mix of white, tawny, cinnamon brown, and rusty or grayish feathers, with a grayish to coffee-brown neck collar that gradually gives way to adult coloring.

The species' range centers on Northeast Asia. Migratory populations breed in far eastern Russia, Northeast China, and occasionally northeastern Mongolia, then winter on the Korean Peninsula and in east-central China. A separate, largely non-migratory population lives year-round in eastern Hokkaidō, Japan, moving only about 150 km (93 mi) to its wintering grounds. The species once lived on Japan's main island of Honshu as well, but no permanent population survives there today.

Behavior and diet

Red-crowned cranes have a highly omnivorous diet, though their preferences aren't fully studied. They eat rice, parsley, carrots, corn, acorns, buckwheat, grasses, and water plants such as reeds, along with fish (including carp and goldfish), amphibians — especially salamanders — snails, crabs, dragonflies, other insects, small reptiles, shrimp, small birds, and rodents. Adults need about 750 g (26 oz) of food a day. Among cranes generally, the red-crowned and whooping crane are considered the most carnivorous species, in contrast to the more herbivorous sandhill and common crane. They typically forage with their heads low, jabbing their beaks into mud, and strike quickly at fish or other slippery prey in a heron-like motion, often tearing larger prey apart with their beaks rather than swallowing it whole.

Wintering cranes forage in family groups, pairs, or alone, though they roost together in larger groups of up to 80 birds. The species is monogamous and long-lived, believed to mate for life, with pairs reaching breeding maturity at three to four years old. Mating and egg-laying are largely confined to April and early May, preceded by an elaborate duet display in which a pair calls and moves in unison — a behavior thought to signal excitement and to reinforce the pair bond and territorial claim.

Nesting territories, typically 1 to 7 km² (0.39–2.70 mi²) and often reused year after year, favor flat terrain near wetlands with tall grasses. Females select the nest site, and both sexes help build it and incubate the typical clutch of two eggs for at least 30 days. Chicks weigh about 150 g (5.3 oz) at hatching and fledge by roughly 95 days old, though they stay with their parents for about nine months. Wild longevity is largely unknown but assumed to run 20 to 30 years; the oldest confirmed wild bird died at 35, while captive cranes have lived up to 65 years — the oldest recorded captive individual died at 46 at the Kushiro Zoo.

Range and habitat

The red-crowned crane is found today only in China, Russia, North Korea, South Korea, and Japan. Migratory populations breed in Siberia, Northeast China, and occasionally northeastern Mongolia, with the core breeding range centered on Lake Khanka along the China–Russia border; in fall they migrate to the Korean Peninsula and east-central China for winter. A separate, mostly resident population lives in eastern Hokkaidō, Japan. The species nests in wetlands, marshes, and rivers, while its wintering habitat consists mainly of paddy fields, grassy tidal flats, and mudflats, where the birds switch from foraging on aquatic invertebrates to feeding on rice gleanings when conditions turn cold and snowy.

Conservation status

The red-crowned crane is listed as Vulnerable (VU). In 2020, winter counts recorded more than 3,800 birds, including about 1,900 in Japan, over 1,600 in Korea, and roughly 350 in China — suggesting around 2,300 adults overall. Both the resident Japanese population and the migratory population wintering in Korea have grown in recent decades, but the migratory population wintering in China has declined sharply. The main threats are habitat loss and fragmentation, along with human disturbance near nesting grounds, poisoning, and poaching.