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Species authority page

Whooping crane

Grus americana · Migratory game birds

Whooping crane (Grus americana): Very tall (4 ft 11 in-5 ft 3 in), mostly white crane with black wingtips shown in flight. Adult has bare red skin on the head and a dark facial pattern. Do not shoot unless you are certain of the species. This profile does not establish whether taking it is legal anywhere.

Check rules for a place and date

Certified rules currently represented in Hunt: coverage in development. This is coverage, not a legal answer.

Whooping crane walking through tall grass
Adobe Stock · Free asset, Standard License (asset 310570810)
Scientific name
Grus americana
Family
Gruidae
Range
One of the rarest North American birds; the wild migratory flock nests in Wood Buffalo National Park in central Canada and winters on the central Texas coast, about 2,400 miles away. It once nested more widely on the northern prairies.
Biology

How to identify it

Very tall (4 ft 11 in-5 ft 3 in), mostly white crane with black wingtips shown in flight. [1]

Adult has bare red skin on the head and a dark facial pattern. [1]

Juvenile has brown on the head and back. [1]

Trumpet-like call carries for several miles. [1]

Compared with the wood stork: Compare the black wing pattern in flight; the whooping crane is a different shape and has a red-and-dark head pattern. [1]

Compared with the american white pelican: Also white with black in the wings; compare shape and the crane's long legs and red crown. [1]

Species it is confused with

Check these before deciding what you are looking at. If you are not certain what it is, do not shoot.

Field notes

  • Safety Whooping cranes migrate through the same prairie country and at the same time of year as sandhill cranes, often in mixed flocks. Identify every bird before you shoot: at dawn, in fog or against the sky, colour can be hard to read. If any bird in a flock could be a whooping crane, do not shoot.[1]
  • Identification Do not identify Whooping crane from colour alone. Compare structure, size, range and the listed similar species before making a field decision.[1]
Field knowledge

Where it lives

Breeds in remote muskeg (swampy coniferous forest with many ponds); winters in coastal marsh. [1]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Migrates by day in family groups or small flocks along narrow corridors with traditional stopovers. [1]

Wintering pairs and families defend feeding territories, returning to the same territory each winter. [1]

Omnivorous; in winter eats crabs, clams, shrimp, insects, frogs, fish, acorns and berries. [1]

Regulatory handoff

Not a quarry species

North Ground does not treat this species as quarry: it is published so it can be told apart from the game species it resembles, and Hunt never offers it. If you are not certain what it is, do not shoot.

Field notes

  • Legal Whooping crane is listed as Endangered on Schedule 1 of Canada's Species at Risk Act and is protected under the Migratory Birds Convention Act, 1994.

Conservation and protection

Geospatial intelligence

Where it is found

One of the rarest North American birds; the wild migratory flock nests in Wood Buffalo National Park in central Canada and winters on the central Texas coast, about 2,400 miles away. It once nested more widely on the northern prairies.

Biology

Sources

Every claim above is attributed to one of these published sources.

  1. National Audubon Society · reviewed 2026-09-30

    National Audubon Society