Sandhill Cranes at Orlando Wetlands

· by

All young birds are pretty darn cute, but this guy really makes me smile! Amazingly, Sandhill Crane chicks are able to leave the nest just ONE day after hatching and follow the parents around! They stay close to the parents for 9-10 months (Audubon Field Guide).

We’ve seen much younger Sandhill Crane colts in the past (see Sandhill Crane Family Outing and other previous posts at BirdersJourney tag archives). This more mature youngster appears to be catching on very well – his foraging posture even looks like a mini-version of his parent below.

Sandhill Cranes are found year-round throughout Florida, but were listed as a Threatened Species in the 1970’s due to habitat loss. Since that time they have made a comeback and “recent studies suggest the population is increasing, and productivity rates are associated with a stable and growing population, possibly because cranes are using suburban areas.” (UF IFAS)

For lots more about our Sandhill Cranes, check out this very informative University of Florida Fact Sheet: UF IFAS

28 thoughts on “Sandhill Cranes at Orlando Wetlands”

    • Yes, Kathy – this was our first visit since the boardwalk was put in. It’s beautiful! As you know, Orlando wetlands is so big… We actually only had time to walk one half of the boardwalk, since we did the other open trails. Next time we’ll do the other direction on the boardwalk. ☺️

      Like

      Reply

  6. Lovely capture of this little guy BJ ! Their innocent learning looks and cuteness factor always attracts our endearment of them. As I have previously mentioned, they remind me of our Sarus Cranes in likeness.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s