Cranes: Trumpeters of the Skies

Whether bugling from the heavens, dancing in paddy fields, or trumpeting their everlasting love for one another, there is something deeply evocative about cranes. They give me goosebumps like few other species can. Five species were encountered in India. The fabled sarus crane (Antigone antigone) is chiefly a resident of the paddy fields and wetlands of north India. Demoiselle, eastern common, and black-necked cranes are all migrants to India. Unfortunately, the magnificent Siberian or great white crane (Leucogeranus leucogeranus), also a migrant, no longer graces Keoladeo National Park in Bharatpur, its erstwhile winter bastion in India.

Cranes have evoked emotion and reverence among people all over the world, with myriad stories and legends linked to these magnificent trumpeters of the skies.

Sarus crane: Standing nearly two metres (6 feet) tall, the sarus is the world’s tallest flying bird. It is clad in slate grey with a head and upper neck the colour of a used cricket ball. Renowned for marital fidelity, sarus pairs stay together for life (newlyweds in parts of Gujarat are often taken to meet the birds for this reason!), and it is widely believed that if one of the pair dies, the partner will starve itself to death in grief. Nevertheless, divorce is not unknown — especially if a pair has not been able to have a baby. You can often see pairs of sarus cranes striding through the paddy fields and wetlands of north India (Uttar Pradesh is their stronghold) in a stately manner, though all formality is thrown to the wind when they are courting (usually between July and October). They prance, caper, and curtsey madly around each other, with feathers fluffed up, skirts held high, and heads thrown back as they trumpet and bugle in a duet that carries far across the marshes and wetlands. The display may continue for several minutes before the female crouches down for the final act.

These bugling calls may also serve as territorial warnings to other pairs, as a greeting, or warning of approaching danger. Long years ago, in Bharatpur, I recall hearing a sarus bugle on a moonlit night; the lonely haunting call wafting over the yellow mustard fields made the hair at the back of my neck stand up.

For a nest, sarus cranes construct an enormous pad of reeds, rushes, and straw — about a metre in diameter, on the bund of a paddy field or mound in a marsh. The female lays one or sometimes two eggs. Both parents incubate — for about a month — and the chicks are fed for the first few days but are soon able to follow the tall parents and find their own food. It’s wonderful to see how carefully the parents usher their chick between them as they stalk through the marshes, ever ready to warn the babies of the slightest threat. A brief “korr-rr-rr” warning call urges the chick to lie doggo, and if it doesn’t, the call is repeated, along with a light tap on its head. Sometimes, sarus pairs may be accompanied by a third bird, forming a trio (and collectively bugling what are called “triets”), which may help bring up the youngster.

Sarus are the least vegetarian of the crane clan — and will happily dine off small crustaceans, fish, small reptiles, and amphibians in addition to cereal grain, marsh plants, grass shoots, and tubers. As farmers do not interfere with them, they are usually unafraid of humans, and their population in India is believed to be under 10,000 birds. According to legend, in ancient times, the poet Valmiki was so incensed when he witnessed a hunter kill the male of a courting pair that he cursed the hunter — and later composed the Ramayana. (The same claim has been made for the demoiselle crane though they don’t breed in India.)

Siberian crane: The real crane tragedy however is the story of the exquisite snow-white, red-headed Siberian crane (140 cm) — once the jewel in Bharatpur’s crown. Siberian cranes breed in Siberia and are divided into three groups: eastern, central and western. The eastern group (consisting of over 4,000 birds) migrates to Lake Poyang in China, while the western group (sadly, only one bird remains) visits Iran. The central group for whom Keoladeo National Park was a winter retreat has not come to India since the winter of 2001-2002 and has become “Critically Endangered” on the IUCN Red List. Checking out the “sibeys” was the highlight of every winter trip to Bharatpur during the 1980s and 1990s, and it was dreadful to read the writing on the wall as the years went by. It is thought that hunters in Afghanistan (particularly Abi-i Istada Lake where they would stop were largely responsible. Some attempts were made to entice captive-raised birds back; one of these involved hand-reared birds being imprinted (learn) to follow hang-gliders along their migratory routes a la the movie Fly Away Home.

Demoiselle cranes: The effete, delicate demoiselle crane (Grus virgo), stands 76 cm tall and undertakes one of the toughest, most dangerous migratory journeys. They fly to heights of 4,900-7,900 metres, over the Himalayas in great congregations of up to 400 strong from Central Asia, setting off in August-September. These dainty grey birds have black heads, a tassel of white feathers behind their eyes, a grey-brown plume over their tails and an evocative “krook-krook” call. In Khichan near Phalodi town, Jodhpur district, Rajasthan, villagers feed the exhausted, famished birds that come to their village.

Eastern common crane: The eastern common crane (Grus grus) is a grey bird with a blackish head, dull red nape, and prominent white band running down from behind the eyes. They are 140 cm tall and migrate in enormous numbers, flying like other cranes in great wavy echelons or Vs bugling high up from the heavens. They spend the winter raiding winter crops, often in the company of demoiselles.

Black-necked cranes: Listed as “Near Threatened” (world population 8,800-11,000 birds) by the IUCN are the largely black and grey-white, black-necked cranes (Grus nigricollis). They are about as tall as the sarus, sport a red head, white patch below the eye, and black necks. The tail is droopingly plumed, like in most cranes. They breed in the high-altitude lakes (4,300-4,600 m) of the Tibetan Plateau, descending to paddy fields and swamps (around 1,500 m) in winter, where they are most at risk. Between 20 and 40 birds have been visiting the Apa Tani Valley in Arunachal Pradesh since time immemorial (according to the local tribals) between April and November and subsist on fallen grain. In Ladakh there are about 15-20 pairs of breeding black-necked cranes and a total of about 100 individuals have been counted by researchers.