Eastern Sandhill Cranes

Most American birdwatchers associate sandhill cranes with the Great Plains and Western U.S., having seen large flocks at staging areas, such as the Platte River in Nebraska or the San Luis Valley in Colorado, or at wintering grounds in California, New Mexico or Texas. But there is a large and growing eastern population of sandhill cranes, composed primarily of the greater sandhill crane subspecies.

These cranes breed in the vicinity of James Bay, Canada and around the Great Lakes, from Minnesota and Wisconsin to Michigan and northern Ohio. On their migrations to wintering areas from southern Georgia to central Florida, they use two primary staging areas: the Jasper-Pulaski State Fish & Wildlife Area, in northwest Indiana, and the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge, just NNE of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Of course, migrant flocks may be seen in wetland areas and agricultural fields anywhere between their breeding and wintering areas and the cranes may shorten their travels if mild conditions persist and they encounter a plentiful food supply.

Non-migratory populations include the Florida sandhill cranes, found from the Okefenokee Swamp to the Everglades (with the greatest number on the Kissimmee Prairie, north of Lake Okeechobee) and the endangered Mississippi sandhill cranes, found on or near the Mississippi Sandhill Crane NWR, along I-10 in southern Mississippi; the latter population currently numbers about 110 cranes. Another non-migratory population of sandhill cranes inhabits Cuba. All sandhill cranes, whether found in the eastern or western U.S., are threatened primarily by habitat loss, the result of marsh drainage, stream water diversion or agricultural development.