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Portrait of Common crane

Nature · Birds

Common crane

Resident and passage · 1.2 m tall

Grus grus — Gruidae (cranes)

Britain's tallest bird, standing about 1.2 metres, grey with a red crown patch, a white cheek stripe and a drooping "bustle" of plumes over the tail. Hunted and drained out of Britain by about 1600, it returned of its own accord to the Norfolk Broads in 1979, and the Great Crane Project released nearly a hundred hand-reared birds on the Somerset Levels from 2010. Its bugling call carries for miles.

How to spot them

  • ▸Britain's tallest bird at about 1.2 m — a quarter taller than a grey heron
  • ▸Flies with the neck held straight out; a heron tucks its neck back into a bow
  • ▸Drooping 'bustle' of curling tertial plumes over the tail at rest
  • ▸Grey body, black-and-white head and neck with a bare red crown patch
  • ▸A loud bugling trumpet, audible for several kilometres, and a leaping, wing-flapping dance

How to know it

Britain's tallest bird at about 1.2 metres, grey with a bare red crown and a drooping bustle of plumes over the tail

Common crane — Grus grus.

Flies with its neck held straight out, unlike the heron that tucks its neck into a bow

Common crane — the flight profile is the classic distinction.

A loud bugling trumpet carrying several kilometres, and a leaping, wing-flapping courtship dance

Common crane — the call is produced by an unusually long coiled windpipe.

Two birds appeared at Hickling Broad in Norfolk in September 1979, the first return after nearly four centuries

Common crane — the natural recolonisation; the first breeding attempt followed in 1981.

Ninety-four hand-reared chicks were released on the Somerset Levels between 2010 and 2014

Common crane — the Great Crane Project, run by the RSPB, WWT and Pensthorpe.

Drained and hunted out of Britain by about 1600, it survives in place names such as Cranmore and Cranfield

Common crane — though many 'crane' place names in fact refer to herons.

A record eighty or more pairs bred in the UK in 2023, with the total population passing 250 birds

Common crane — RSPB, 2024.

Quick-fire facts

  • •Scientific name Grus grus; the family Gruidae is unrelated to the herons, and the crane's nearest British relatives are the rails
  • •At least 80 pairs bred in the UK in 2023, a record, and the total population is now in excess of 250 birds (RSPB); the Rare Breeding Birds Panel's five-year mean estimate is around 68 pairs
  • •Amber-listed in Birds of Conservation Concern 5 (2021); it is not listed on Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 in Great Britain, though it is protected as a Schedule 1 species in the Isle of Man and the Republic of Ireland
  • •It was lost as a British breeder by about 1600, through hunting for the table and the draining of the fens
  • •Two cranes appeared at Hickling Broad in Norfolk on 15 September 1979, a third in October, and a breeding attempt followed in 1981
  • •The Great Crane Project released 94 hand-reared chicks on the Somerset Levels and Moors between 2010 and 2014
  • •The bugling call is produced by a windpipe that is greatly elongated and coiled inside the breastbone
  • •It performs a leaping, bowing, wing-flapping courtship dance, and was a prized dish at medieval English feasts, which is part of why it was lost
  • •The machine is named after the bird: a crane's long neck and lifting action gave the hoist its name

Drill it — 8 cards

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Sources