Other Names (World)
Grey Crowned-Crane, Gray Crowned-Crane, Blue-necked Crane, Royal Crane, East African Crowned-Crane, South African Crowned-Crane, Grey Crowned Crane
Habitat
Wetlands such as marshes, pans and dams with tall emergent vegetation, riverbanks, open riverine woodland, shallowly flooded plains and temporary pools with adjacent grasslands, open savannas, croplands, pastures, fallow fields and irrigated areas.
Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania [United Republic of], Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Vagrant to Lesotho.
Introduced to Kuwait (E).
Population
Estimated population is 47,000 - 59,000 (2010) and decreasing.
Status EN
Loss and degradation of wetland breeding areas due to changes in land-use, drainage and overgrazing, as well as through the heavy use of agricultural pesticides, declines in fallowing practices, high sedimentation rates, uncontrolled grass and deep litter fires in the breeding season, and dam construction and groundwater extraction are the main threats. Also live-trapping for trade, egg-collecting and hunting, and by indirect disturbance from the hunting of large mammals or ducks in wetlands and the activities of fisheries may also be a threat.
For more information see BirdLife International Species Factsheet.
Habits
Often flocks together and roosts communally at night in groups of up to 20 - 200 individuals.
Food
Insects and other invertebrates, reptiles, small mammals, as well as grass seeds.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet