Grus grus - Common Crane
Feather characters. Barbules are of medium length (1.0-1.6 mm) and filamentous without any pigmented parts. Borders between cells are visible, but hardly swollen and thus too small to qualify as nodes. These nodal structures (10-15 per mm) have about the same size along the entire length of the barbules, only slightly decreasing towards the tip. Villi are absent and internodes are straight. Short prongs may occur along the entire length and on both sides of the pennulum, but they are unequally distributed. Their length varies; proximal prongs are longest and these can reach a length between 0.01 mm and half the length of the adjacent internode. Occasionally some of the prongs appear to be present on one side of a barbule only, but that is because they are hidden behind this barbule.
Field characters. Size 110-120 cm. Weight 5500 g (Dunning, 1993). A tall, graceful, Heron-like bird with mainly uniform lead-grey plumage and a white band on each side of head and neck, contrasting with grey-black chin, throat, and upper neck. Elongated secondaries form conspicuous cloak of loose feathers falling over tail; primaries black. At close distance red patch visible on crown. Bill relatively shorter than in herons and storks. Juvenile with brown head and neck; upperparts darker, more brown than in adult. Flies with head and neck extended, with regular, slow, but powerful wing-beats, alternated with long glides and soaring; gait is a stalking walk.
Voice. A loud, trumpeting "krooh".
Distribution. Fairly common summer visitor in Fenno-Scandia and eastern Europe, elsewhere more scarce. Map: see MapIt.
Habitat. In the breeding season, frequents treeless moorlands, bogs, areas of dwarf heath, swampy areas, and reedy wetlands. Outside the breeding season, occurs in open country, such as marshes, lagoons, dry grasslands, cultivated lands.
Food. Taken from the ground, shallow water, or from vegetation while walking, mainly plant material such as roots, rhizomes, tubers, stems, leaves, fruits, and seeds; also invertebrates (insects, snails, annelids) and vertebrates (lizards, snakes, rodents).