Grey-crowned Crane

A very beautiful Crane (that we also saw at the Atlanta Zoo earlier this summer) is the Grey Crowned Crane (Above, 7-31-10, International Crane Foundation, Baraboo, WI), which is the National Bird of Uganda. It was fun to watch and photo this species because of its golden crown (I would have named it the 'Golden-crowned Grey Crane, if you ask me) and especially how it glowed in the late afternoon sunlight. This bird was in a large enclosure, but it was very sociable, as it wanted to come up to the cyclone fence enclosure to meet us. I wanted it to stay back in its grassy habitat for a better picture. It was a challenge to get good photos without a fence obstructing it. In the closeup photo (Below, 7-31-10) you can see the red gular sack on its throat, which they inflate then push the air out to create a booming call.

The range of the Grey Crowned Crane in eastern and southern Africa stretches from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and Kenya to southeastern South Africa. They are non-migratory, but undertake variable local and seasonal movements, and are most abundant in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. Another subspecies occurs in Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. The East African subspecies occurs in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, northern Zimbabwe, and northern Mozambique, and comprises the majority of the total population.