Sandhill Cranes Appear in Macon County

By Mark Darnell

There has been a lot of buzz in Lafayette this past week about some new visitors passing through Macon County. We have received calls about sightings and sounds coming from some new animals that aren’t native to our area.

The sandhill crane is a species of large crane of North America and extreme northeastern Siberia according to ‘Wikipedia.’ There are five distinct different subspecies of these cranes. The adults are gray overall with stained wings and some red coloring along their plumage.

They migrate just like other birds from Canada south and back north each year. The ‘flyway’ for these types of birds, just like ducks and Canadian geese, is the intuitive route these birds travel in. That route appears to change based on weather patterns and other environmental conditions. Many local residents have spotted other waterfowl moving through the area in the past few years.

Now we are seeing these cranes come through Macon County. Usually they follow bodies of water and with the recent precipitation we have had in the last 60 days, these birds are stopping in our area.

These birds are usually herbivores and are very social creatures living in family groups. They migrate south for the winter and head back north for the summer. So our new residents, more than likely, will just be passing through. Migration south usually starts in September to December. The trip back north is usually mid January through mid April according to the Audubon society.

So if you hear a weird high pitched honk or see some strange gray looking birds feeding in a field, give them their space. The sandhill crane is just passing through.