When the cranes reach the Platte River on their way north they will spend approximately 29 days increasing their body fat by a quarter of their weight. It is the Lesser Sandhill Crane that migrate into the high Arctic nesting across Northern Canada and Alaska with close to 100,000 of them crossing the Bering Strait to nest in Eastern Siberia. As the Greater Sandhill Cranes settle down to nest in western Minnesota and Manitoba, the Canadian, or intermediate cranes head for central Canada from the Rockies to Hudson Bay. The crane population along the Platte River peaks by late March, and by the second week of April, other than a few stragglers, they have made a mass exodus to the breeding grounds. The normal arrival date in Nebraska on their way north is lateįebruary. The Sandhill Cranes that pass through the heart of Nebraska known as the Central Flyway, winter in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. 15% of that population are intermediate, or Sandhill Cranes which nest in Canada, 5 % are Greater Sandhill Cranes, and the balance are Lesser Sandhill Cranes. This region is an important annual migratory stopover for more than 500,000 Sandhill Cranes. The common name, Sandhills Crane, is derived from its relationship with the Platte River surrounded by the Nebraska sandhills. And in just the last 150 years have further adapted to the influences of man along with the introduction of cattle, row crops, and sprawling urban communities. They witnessed the prehistoric mammals replaced by the American Bison, Pronghorn Antelope, and elk. The Sandhill Cranes survived and adapted as the prairies developed some 14,000 years ago. With the Platte River dating back a young 10,000 years, these early cranes were sharing a savannah type habitat with the North American rhinoceros, camel, and elephant that have long been extinct.

But even more amazing are the fossilized remains found in Nebraska of what is believed to be the early prehistoric ancestors of the Sandhill Cranes which date back over 10 million years. This is almost twice as old as the remains of most current living bird species. The Sandhill Crane has one of the longest fossil histories of any existing bird, with the oldest dating back 2.5 million years.

Backyard cranes in the sky