The Sandhill Crane - from America. Sandhills “paint” themselves with mud and rotting vegetation before nesting for camouflage. Farmers consider the sandhills a nuisance as they damage newly sprouted corn seedlings. The foundation is working with farmers to create pesticides that prevent cranes from damaging the crops.
The Whooping Crane - back from the brink (22 in 1941 to 600+ in 2012), this is one of conservation’s most inspiring success stories, although they are still the rarest of all the cranes. This is a fascinating video about a particular whooping crane named Tex:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsDYhdaJL98
The Blue Crane - Standing in front of a painted wall, these cranes look like part of the painting. They are the “ballerinas” of South Africa and are dependent upon dry grasslands and other upland habitats (13 of the 15 species rely on wetlands)
The Black Crowned Crane - cranes are traditional symbols of good luck in many countries around the world, and in Nigeria the Black Crowned Crane is the national bird. In one locale, people believe that anyone who captures and eats a crane becomes insane so in many cases people avoid them due to superstition.
And the showman of them all: the Grey Crowned Crane - a lovely African folktale explains how crowned cranes came to have their feathery crowns. As the story goes, the cranes befriended a great king who had been lost in the desert. Parched and exhausted from the hot sun, the cranes sheltered the king under their wings and helped him to safety. Out of gratitude for his rescue, the king gave the birds crowns of real gold. His generous gift soon proved to be both a blessing and a curse. People marveled at the sight of the gold, but they were also so envious they began to kill the cranes and steal the golden crowns. Heartsick, the king sought to remedy the grief he had brought to the friendly cranes. With a magic wave of his hand, he transformed the crowns of gold into light, shimmering gold feathers.
