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The East African Crowned Crane is a very
striking bird. It is slate-grey with white upper and under wing coverts. Its
primary feathers are black and its secondaries are chestnut. It has black down
on its head and a top-knot of stiff golden bristles. The Crowned Crane's legs
and bill are black: its eyes are light grey; its facial skin is white and red;
and its throat lappet is scarlet. |
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East African Crowned Cranes are found
from eastern Zaire, Uganda, and Kenya to central Tanzania. The largest
concentrations are found in marshes and grassy flatlands near the rivers and
lakes. It can also be found on cultivated land. |
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The Crowned Crane's diet consists of
plants, seeds, grain, insects, frogs, worms, snakes, small fish and the eggs of
water animals. They stamp as they walk, flushing out insects to eat! The cranes
spend 50 to 75% of their time foraging for food! |
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East African Crowned Cranes live in
pairs or family parties, building up to flocks of over 100! It is very
gregarious! |
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The Crowned Crane has a trumpeting call
"u-wang u-wang", as well as, a gutteral grunt. |
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The breeding season, for the East
African Crowned Crane, varies throughout their range. The female lays 2 to 3
glossy, dirty-white eggs with small brown spots. In the wild, the eggs quickly
become stained, in a heap of dry grasses in a trampled area of the swamp, where
the nest is usually located. Both parents incubate the eggs for about 4 weeks
and feed the young, who soon leave the nest. |
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This is the only crane to perch in
trees, with a partiality for solitary trees that afford a wide view! |
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They fly with neck extended forward and
legs stretched horizontally beyond their tail, except in cold weather, when
they tuck their feet under their breast feathers! |
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East African Crowned Cranes perform
"slow motion" dances with wing flapping, displaying their topknot to
its full effect. When dancing, the birds hop forward with extended wings to
form a circle, then circle round each other, dance out away from the center and
then hop back again to reform the circle. This is one of a number of species of
birds which have provided models for the dances of local tribes in
Africa. |
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The Crowned Cranes are "living
fossils" among the cranes; they flourished in the Eocene Period - 54 to 38
million years ago! |
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