Sandhill cranes stop in North Dakota

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) - We count on tourism in our state. But it’s not just people.

Every spring, North Dakota skies fill with thousands of migrating birds heading from wintering grounds to breeding grounds.

“But I think as far as cranes go, it’s really special because we’ve got all these birds in the mid-continent population that are breeding all over. I mean, some of them are breeding in a different continent, but they’re all funneling through North Dakota at some point,” said John Palarski, North Dakota Game and Fish waterfowl biologist. “And so, North Dakotans really have kind of that front row seat to a pretty spectacular migration every year.”

These long-legged birds, equipped with long, coiled windpipes, are as loud as they are tall.

“It’s a really distinctive trill and it’s really unique. It’s very loud,” said Palarski. “So, most people, they’ll hear the birds migrating over, but it’ll take them a heck of a long time sometimes to find them way up in the sky or way off in the distance, but it’ll sound like they’re right in somebody’s lap.”

Sandhill cranes often put on quite the show during their time in North Dakota.

“That’s I think what a lot of people like watching and kind of contributes to them being considered a pretty charismatic bird species as far as birds go,” said Palarski. “But they’ll do a lot of jumping and displaying with their mate, flapping their wings, things like that.”

Sandhill cranes are considered omnivores, which means they eat plants and animals.

“We think of them eating a lot of grains, wetland seeds, vegetation, you know, wetland plant tubers, but they’re also known to eat amphibians, reptiles, small mammals as well,” said Palarski.

North Dakota plays a significant role during the sandhill migration every spring and fall.

“Some of these birds are going to Siberia and Alaska and northern Canada, their migration routes, you know, a couple thousand miles. And so, they need to refuel on those shallow wetlands, which North Dakota obviously has a lot of and provide,” said Palarski. “So the stopover sites in North Dakota, being those shallow wetlands, are really important to those birds to refuel during their migration.”

Another interesting fact about sandhill cranes is that they will mate for life, just like Canada geese.

The mid-continent population of sand-hill cranes has been stable to increasing over the last decade, right around half a million to three-quarters of a million birds.