Cranes | Gruidae

Kraanvogels | Grullas

The windpipe is elongated and coils partly inside the breastbone, acting almost like a wind instrument that gives the trumpeting call its carrying resonance, and paired birds call in a tightly matched duet that comes across as a single sound. Courtship is a leaping, bowing dance performed with tossed twigs or grass, and it recurs year-round rather than being confined to the breeding season. Cranes walk open marsh and grassland on their long legs, picking and probing seeds, tubers and small animals from the ground or just beneath it; some, including the Sandhill Crane, rub mud into their plumage, staining the otherwise grey body rust-brown. Of the two eggs in a clutch, usually only one chick survives: the older sibling actively drives the younger away from food, and once fledged, families migrate together in small groups to the wintering grounds.