Grey Crowned Crane (Balearica regulorum) Courtship Display | Zebra Plains

5 years ago
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The grey crowned crane (Balearica regulorum) is a bird in the crane family, Gruidae. It is found in eastern and southern Africa, and is the national bird of Uganda.
This pair on the plains of Kenya's Maasai Mara were kind enough to call and display for the camera! The grey crowned crane has a breeding display involving dancing, bowing, and jumping. It has a booming call which involves inflation of the red gular sac. It also makes a honking sound quite different from the trumpeting of other crane species. Both sexes dance, and immature birds join the adults. Dancing is an integral part of courtship, but also may be done at any time of the year.
The grey crowned crane is about 1 m (3.3 ft) tall, weighs 3.5 kg (7.7 lbs), and has a wingspan of 2 m (6.5 ft). Its body plumage is mainly grey. The wings are predominantly white, but contain feathers with a range of colours, with a distinctive black patch at the very top. The head has a crown of stiff golden feathers. The sides of the face are white, and there is a bright red inflatable throat pouch. The bill is relatively short and grey, and the legs are black. They have long legs for wading through the grasses. The feet are large, yet slender, adapted for balance rather than defence or grasping. The sexes are similar, although males tend to be slightly larger. Young birds are greyer than adults, with a feathered buff face.

This species and the black-crowned crane are the only cranes that can roost in trees, because of a long hind toe that can grasp branches. This trait is assumed to be an ancestral trait among the cranes, which has been lost in the other subfamily. Crowned cranes also lack a coiled trachea and have loose plumage compared to the other cranes

Filmed in the Maasai Mara National Reserve Kenya
Filmed in 4K UHD resolution using the Sony AX100 4K video camera: https://go.magik.ly/ml/hory/
Special thanks to Zebra Plains Mara Camp

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