For those who care about the natural world, it can be depressing hearing the seemingly endless stories about habitat destruction and species extinctions. But the conservation movement is winning a few battles, one of which is the re-establishment of a breeding population of common cranes in Britain after an absence stretching back to Elizabethan times.
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An extinct species
Globally, the common crane lives up to its name, with a population comprising around half a million birds. They breed from northern Europe across to eastern Siberia, with the majority coupling up in remote moorlands, bogs and swampy clearings across countries such as Russia, Finland, Sweden and Poland.
Britain marks the edge of the species’ natural range, so it’s perhaps hard to imagine that its famous courtship dance and bugling call would have been a familiar sight and sound across the wetlands and fenlands of the 14th and 15th centuries. In fact, cranes were once so common that it’s said 204 were roasted at a celebration for the Archbishop of York’s enthronement in 1465. Such overzealous hunting, plus the draining of their marshland home, eventually led to their extinction as breeding birds by 1600.
But then, in autumn 1979, a continental migrating pair was blown off course to the Norfolk Broads. They decided to stay, rearing a single chick a couple of years later. This natural recolonisation, boosted by reintroductions, has seen the trajectory move upwards ever since, with the British population now estimated to be more than 250 birds.
Common vs continental cranes
At around 120cm in height, Britain’s tallest bird cuts a graceful figure. Long legs and a slender, black-and-white neck are topped off with a red-brown patch, contrasting with a dove-grey body and predominantly black bustle of curved feathers that droops over the rear end. The huge size is most obvious in flight, when straight, broad and fingered wings give the appearance of a plank crossed with a pool-cue.
Unlike continental cranes, which migrate to northern European breeding grounds in spring, British cranes appear largely sedentary, remaining in the country. Winter is often spent in flocks at a few favoured locations, then, as the season draws to an end, these monogamous birds initiate a reaffirmation of their bonds as they prepare to breed.
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Common crane courtship
The partners run through an elaborate repertoire of displays, which include bowing, head bobbing, arching their necks and bills, and leaping upwards while showing off their 2m-plus wingspans. All, or segments of, this routine will be accompanied by a clanging, trumpet-like call, which can travel distances of up to 6km. Displaying ramps up once the cranes disperse to their breeding grounds in February and March. In Britain, they favour wetland sites with emergent vegetation in shallow water, with pairs protective over their patch. A clutch of two eggs is laid between mid-March and early May, after which the birds become more social. In large gatherings it is surprisingly difficult to pick out any one individual.
In winter, cranes mostly feed on vegetable matter, such as seeds, grass shoots, berries and crop leaves. As their young hatch, they switch to a protein-rich invertebrate diet, taking small mammals and birds when the opportunity arises. Keen to avoid hungry foxes, the young soon accompany their parents on foraging missions, fledging nine to ten weeks later.
Most crane-breeding locations are on sites already protected by conservation organisations, making the future of this iconic species more assured. Let’s hope things stay that way, because, to wilfully misquote Oscar Wilde, “To lose cranes once may be regarded as misfortune; to lose them twice looks like carelessness.”
Best places to spot common cranes in the UK
Humberhead Peatlands
Comprising four moorlands in South Yorkshire, which together represent Britain’s largest lowland raised bog, these peatlands first hosted breeding cranes in 2002.
West Sedgemoor RSPB Reserve
This reserve, and nearby Aller Moor, are considered hotspots for introduced cranes across the Somerset Levels, but can only be explored from public footpaths.
Nene Washes
In 2023, this flagship reserve in the heart of the Cambridgeshire fens held five breeding pairs of cranes.
Hickling Broad National Nature Reserve
Managed by Norfolk Wildlife Trust, this huge reserve was the original site to which the cranes returned to breed. The best place to look for cranes (and raptors) is at the Stubb Mill viewpoint.
Main image: a preening common crane at WWT Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, England/Getty
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