{"id":22807,"date":"2014-03-22T05:39:08","date_gmt":"2014-03-22T11:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=22807"},"modified":"2014-03-22T05:39:08","modified_gmt":"2014-03-22T11:39:08","slug":"unusual-sandhill-crane-behavior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/22\/unusual-sandhill-crane-behavior\/","title":{"rendered":"Unusual Sandhill Crane Behavior"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most of the Sandhill Crane\u00a0behaviors I observed last week\u00a0were typical for the species but one was quite unusual.<\/p>\n

I photographed and observed these migrating\u00a0cranes in Wayne County\u00a0for many hours over five days.\u00a0 There were usually between 13\u00a0 and 33 individual birds present and their activities ranged from docile feeding to frenzied displays of aggression and dancing.\u00a0\u00a0 Only twice in all that time did I observe a crane lay down on the ground.\u00a0 One bird simply appeared to be resting and soon got back up to resume foraging.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"sandhill<\/a><\/p>\n

But what was going on with this bird has me stumped.\u00a0 It laid down in what appeared to be a slight depression, spread out at least one of its wings and seemed to press its bill and face close to the ground and it held that posture for some time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"sandhill<\/a><\/p>\n

Almost immediately other birds gathered around and one of them in particular seemed\u00a0intensely curious about what was going on.\u00a0 The bird on the ground held its posture.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"sandhill<\/a><\/p>\n

But a short time later it raised its head and eventually got up and resumed its feeding, as did the rest of the cranes.<\/p>\n

I attempted to research the behavior but even though there’s a plethora of information in the literature about Sandhill Crane behaviors I struck out on this one.\u00a0 I can only guess that it was a social signal of some kind to other birds or perhaps it was pre-nesting behavior.\u00a0 I really have no clue as to its significance.<\/p>\n

But I found it fascinating nonetheless.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most of the Sandhill Crane behaviors I observed last week were typical for the species but one was quite unusual.<\/p>\n

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