The Brandywine Zoo has a sandhill crane named Sandy, who came to live at the zoo in 2007. Sandy was found on the ground near Messalonskee Lake in Maine in July 2007 as an early fledgling. Due to needs for continued treatment for foot swelling issues (and his imprinting on humans), Sandy was unable to be released and missed out on learning how to migrate in his first year. He was transferred from the rehabber in Maine to Tri-State Bird Rescue and later came to Brandywine Zoo.

HABITAT
Prairies, fields, marshes, tundra, usually nests around marshes or bogs.

GEOGRAPHIC REGION AND RANGE
Breeds in northern United States, particularly Alaska, and Canada during the summer and winters in southern United States and Mexico.

DIET
Insects, roots of aquatic plants, rodents, snails, frogs,lizards, snakes, nestling birds, berries, seeds.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Tall bird with long neck, beak, and legs, a red crown and white throat, gray with tan body feathers that droop over the back end.

SIZE
3-4 feet tall; 6-7 foot wingspan

WEIGHT
6-12 pounds

LIFESPAN
Wild: 20 years
Under Human Care: 20-40 years

THREATS
Loss and degradation of river wetland ecosystems are the most important threats to sandhill crane populations. The cranes used to roost in many prairie rivers, but today most of these rivers are regulated by dams, causing most of the sandbars, on which the birds roost, to be either submerged or covered in dense vegetation, such as willows, because the sandbars are no longer inundated by spring flooding.

STATUS
Least Concern

REPRODUCTION
• Usually 2 eggs are laid, sometimes 1 or 3. They are pale olive with brown or gray markings.
• Incubation is done by both sexes, and lasts about 30 days

BEHAVIOR
• Sandhill cranes usually migrate to live further south during the winter months, and return north during the spring.
• They build large mound nests in wetlands out of dried plants. Sandhill cranes are monogamous birds, meaning they will mate for life.

SOCIAL STRUCTURE
• Usually live in pairs or family groups.
• During migration and winter, non-related cranes come together to form “survival groups” that forage and roost together.
• These winter groups can sometimes have numbers in the thousands.

COMMUNICATION
• Cranes have a contact call to keep track of each other when they cannot see through tall vegetation.
• Another call is made by unhatched cranes inside their egg, to which the adults respond with a purring sound.
• Sandhill cranes are known for elaborate courtship display dances that include both male and female birds spreading their wings, and leaping in air while calling to each other.