Profile
In flight
Cranes & Waders
Demoiselle Crane
Grus virgo
- legendary
- 75 km/h
- Least Concern
The smallest crane and one of the few birds that clears the Himalayas in flight, riding thin air above 7,000 meters twice a year. Every winter thousands descend on the Jain village of Khichan in Rajasthan, where rooftops and feeding squares fill with cranes the locals hand-feed by the sackful.
- Population
- roughly 230,000 to 280,000 mature individuals, broadly stable
- Habitat
- Central Asian steppe and semi-desert in summer, South Asian and African farmland and wetlands in winter
- Diet
- grass seeds, grain, sedges, beans, large insects, small reptiles, worms
- Size
- 0.95 m
- Wingspan
- 1.7 m
