Wattled Crane

The last of the Cranes we saw at the International Crane Foundation (ICF) in Baraboo, Wisconsin, was the Wattled Crane (Above and Below, 7-31-10) - obviously named for its white and red wattle hanging below its beak.  This was one of the easier Cranes to photo because of its extensive outdoor habitat that included lots of prairie grass and a large marsh that was very open and visible to the observer and made for a great background environment.

Standing up to 6' tall, the Wattled Crane occurs in eleven sub-Saharan countries in Africa, including an isolated population in the highlands of Ethiopia. More than half of the world's Wattled Cranes occur in Zambia. The single largest concentration occurs in the Okavango Delta of Botswana. Wattled Cranes are thought to have historically ranged over a much larger area including coastal West Africa.