Whooping Crane

The Whooping Crane is North America's tallest bird and one of its rarest, having been brought back from the brink of extinction through decades of intensive conservation work. Its predominantly white plumage, set off by black wingtips visible only in flight, along with a bare red facial patch and black "mustache" stripe, make it readily distinguishable from the more common and browner Sandhill Crane.

• Body feathers are pure white, without the rusty staining sometimes seen in Sandhill Crane feathers.
• Primary flight feathers are black, visible as a striking contrast against the white body only when the wing is spread or in flight - folded birds show almost no black.
• Tertial (bustle) feathers are elongated and drooping like in other cranes, but white with black tips rather than uniformly grey.
• The bare red crown and black malar (mustache) stripe mean the face has little or no feathering in those areas.
• Distinguish from the Sandhill Crane, which is grey overall and lacks black primaries, and from egrets, which lack the bustle-type tertial feathers.

Adults are white overall with black primaries, a bare red crown and facial patch, and a black malar stripe running from the base of the bill, along with elongated drooping tertial bustle feathers. Sexes look alike. Juveniles are washed with cinnamon-brown over the white plumage and lack the bare red crown, gradually acquiring full white adult plumage and bare facial skin over their first year or two. Molt follows the breeding season, with adults undergoing a flightless period during wing molt in some years.

The Whooping Crane's remaining wild migratory population breeds in wetlands of northern Canada and winters along the Gulf Coast of Texas, with additional reintroduced populations established in the eastern United States and a small non-migratory population in Louisiana. It is a strongly migratory species where wild populations remain, undertaking a long north-south journey each year.

This crane forages in shallow wetlands and adjacent uplands for a varied diet including aquatic invertebrates, small vertebrates, and plant material. It nests on the ground in marshy wetlands, typically laying two eggs, though usually only one chick survives to fledging. Its call is a loud, far-carrying, trumpeting whoop, the source of its common name, produced with the aid of an elongated coiled windpipe. Because of its small population size, the species has been the subject of extensive captive breeding, reintroduction, and habitat protection efforts for decades.