Sandhill Cranes
Video: Young chick, May 31 2010
It is nesting time for breeding pairs of sandhill cranes in the Great Bear Rainforest. Pacific Wild has been filming a pair and their nest in the Bella Bella area, using remote wireless camera technology to stream live video to the Bella Bella Community School. Sandhill cranes eggs are incubated by both parents for 29-32 days. Last year, the eggs from this pair hatched on June 2nd and 3rd (sandhill crane eggs are laid up to 2 days apart and hatch in the same order). This year, one egg hatched on May 30 but the second one did not hatch at all, perhaps because it wasn't fertilized.
The above clip was filmed May 31 as the chick emerged from its mother's feathers and began to move around with its parents. The adults returned to sit on the remaining egg repeatedly throughout the day and overnight, but left it the following day as they moved further from the nest to forage. It was eventually destroyed by crows. The crane family continues to return to the nest to roost overnight with the young chick sleeping among its mother's feathers while the father stands nearby.
The nest is situated on a low islet composed of mosses and lichens and surrounded by at least one meter of very mucky water, which probably helps to deter mammalian predators as much as the spectacle of an aggressive crane.
| Sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis) are large, long-lived, charismatic, and intelligent birds. B.C.'s small coastal population of sandhill cranes (approximately 4000) are thought to belong to the subspecies rowani and to winter in California, Oregon and Washington. Research conducted over the past three years has shown that sandhill cranes occur on islands of the central and north coasts of B.C. in upland bogs with nearby forest for nesting and roosting, and near estuarine and beach foraging habitat. this is an unusual complex of habitats for breeding sandhill cranes. |
These cranes can be extremely wary of humans during the breeding season, making it difficult to observe them without affecting their behaviour. For this reason, remote cameras are ideal for studying nesting behaviour, such as parental sharing of incubation duties and chick-rearing, foraging behaviour in the nest bog, use of adjacent forest for cover, as well as possible predators.
Up until recently, all three sandhill crane subspecies occuring in B.C. were listed as vulnerable, with provisions available for protection of breeding habitat from logging and mining. Their status has been changed to stable, although very little is known about the distribution and population status of the individual subspecies in the province and their wintering habitat in the US is under ever-increasing pressure from human encroachment.
Stay tuned as we post more clips of this crane family!
For more information on this population of sandhill cranes please see http://rainforestsandhillcrane.wordpress.com. For more information on cranes and crane conservation please see www.savingcranes.org, the website of the International Crane Foundation.
Coastal sandhill crane family June 8 2010
A wild sandhill crane family leaves the nest site where it roosted overnight with its 9-day old chick. This video was taken with a remote wireless camera in the Great Bear Rainforest by Pacific Wild.
Nesting sandhill cranes, March 13 2010
First views of a pair of nesting sandhill cranes taken with a remote wireless camera in the Great Bear Rainforest.
Sandhill crane family...early morning June 4th
The cranes awake the dawn with unison calling, and soon after leave the nest pool with their chick to roam the bog and woods.
Sandhill crane chick antics
New sandhill crane hatchlings shelter in their mother's feathers.
Sandhill crane - second chick hatches
Sandhill crane parents unison calling and second egg hatching on the morning of June 3rd.
Sandhill crane - first chick hatches
This sandhill crane chick hatched late on June 2nd in the Great Bear Rainforest
Sandhill crane nest exchange short
A sandhill crane parent relieves its mate from incubating the eggs. The mate will fly off to forage on the beach nearby.
Sandhill crane nest exchange
A sandhill crane pair exchange places incubating their eggs with unison calling.
Nesting sandhill crane
Sandhill crane footage recorded with a remote camera in the Great Bear Rainforest
Sandhill crane
Rare video footage of unique coastal population of Sandhill cranes nesting on outer coastal bog forest in the Great Bear Rainforest.