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Greater Sandhill Crane Grus canadensis tabida (Endangered Colorado) The greater sandhill crane is a very large bird with long legs and a long neck, and it measures about four feet in length and weighs approxi- mately 12 pounds. It is slate gray in color and y has a red patch of skin on the forehead. Greater sandhill cranes are sometimes confused Photo by Perm Conway with the great blue heron, a bird that's similar in both size and color; but the distinction is easy to make when they are in flight. While the heron pulls its head up and back, form- ing an "S" with its neck, the crane's neck is fully extended in a straight line with the body during flight. The greater sandhill crane population is estimated to be 25,000 birds, and approximately 15,000 of them occur in the Rocky Mountain regions of Canada as well as in the states of Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Montana, and Colorado. The San Luis Valley of Colorado is the only major stopover point for spring and fall migrations. Greater sandhill's nesting habitats are mostly marshes and willow-lined drainages in high-mountain meadows, but the crane's breeding range in Colorado has shrunk to a small portion of three counties in the northwestern part of the state. Colo- rado's nesting population appears now to be about 40 pairs. The population decline in Colorado is the result of human settlement. As people moved in, much of the nesting habitat became unsuitable because of either direct or indirect human disturbance during the.incubation and chick-rearing periods, resulting in nest abandonment and loss of young. Additionally, many of the cranes were shot for food. The Colorado Division of Wildlife began to address a serious decline in the state's greater sandhill crane breeding population in the mid-1970s. The Division's objec- tive is to increase the number of nesting pairs to a level that will ensure a long- term, self-sustaining breeding population in Colorado. The sandhill crane is slightly srnaller than the whooping crane, lacks the blad wingtips and is gray rather than white. It has a six-foot wingspan. Left: Sand- hill crane in New Mexico cornfield. ii