Birds of the Upper Cumberland Region: Species Accounts

Whooping Crane (Grus americana)

Whooping Crane [lateral view of marked adult]: Photograph Credit: David L. Roemer; Barren County, Kentucky; 15 February 2010.

Abundance: Very Uncommon; at least 15 sightings of unassisted transients have occurred in at least 10 Regional counties, 2 in Kentucky and 8 in Tennessee, beginning during spring 2002 (Map of UCR Distribution); data from the Regional bird-monitoring efforts are too few to determine a trend in the population migrating through the Region (see also Regional Bird-Monitoring Plan).

Status: Transient during late fall/ early winter (6 records) and late winter/early spring (9 records); reintroduced as a transient in the eastern United States beginning during fall 2001; introduction of lab-produced juveniles continued each fall for nearly a decade; wild-raised juveniles began appearing the the eastern population in mid-2000s; photograph (above).

Regional High Count and CBC/CBB High Count (of unassisted transients): 8 (22 December 2008; White County [CBC], Tennessee; Edmund K. LeGrand, Douglas A. Downs).

Information Involving Juvenile Migration Training: 

8–13 November 2001 (7—juvenile migration trainees) entered the Region in Adair County, Kentucky (one-night stay); traveled on through Cumberland County, Kentucky, Pickett County, Tennessee, and Fentress County, Tennessee, to Cumberland County, Tennessee (three-night stay); continued to Bledsoe County, Tennessee (one-night stay); and exited the Region on last day (fide Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership website).

13–18 November 2002 (16—juvenile migration trainees) entered the Region in Adair County, Kentucky (one-night stay); continued to Fentress County, Tennessee (four-night stay); and exited the Region on last day (fide Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership website).

14–25 November 2003 (16—juvenile migration trainees) entered the Region in Adair County, Kentucky (five-night stay); continued to Cumberland County, Tennessee (five-night stay); and exited the Region on last day (fide Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership website).

16–18 November 2004 (14—juvenile migration trainees) entered the Region in Adair County, Kentucky (one-night stay); continued to Cumberland County, Tennessee (one-night stay); and exited the Region on last day (fide Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership website).

c. 20–25 November 2005 (c. 18—juvenile migration trainees) daily details of this training flight not available at website of Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership, but a stay of several nights took place in Cumberland County, Tennessee, during the period of occurrence (fide SJS).

21 November–2 December 2006 (18—juvenile migration trainees) daily details of this training flight not available at website of Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership, but a stay of about 10 nights took place in Cumberland County, Tennessee, during the period of occurrence (fide SJS). Note: a storm in central Florida led to the death of 17 of these juvenile Whooping Cranes during the night of 1/2 February 2007.

4–29 December 2007 (17—juvenile migration trainees) only general, not daily, details of this training flight are available at website of Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership, but a stay of about 20 nights took place in Cumberland County, Tennessee, during the period of occurrence (fide SJS).

Information on Records Involving Unassisted Individuals:

14/15 April 2002 (4) near Clarkrange, Fentress County, Tennessee (fide Troy Ettel [TWRA]), an overnight stay.

1 March 2003 (2) south of Vernon community, Clay County, Tennessee (Danny Stone fide Terry M. Campbell and David L. Roemer).

10 November 2004 (1—flying with Sandhill Crane flock) Flynn Creek Rd., Jackson County, Tennessee (Michael J. Hawkins).

7 March 2005 (1) near Bullington Lane, Jackson County, Tennessee (Nancy S. Layzer).

17–27 March 2007 (2—leg-banded males [5-05, 6-05; see also Individual Life Histories below]) Grassland Unit, University of Tennessee Experimental Agriculture Station, Ted Davis Rd., Cumberland County, Tennessee (Charles Brendel fide Janet Dowlen, Stephen J. Stedman photo [23 March 2007], m. ob.).

25 November 2007 (1—flying with Sandhill Crane flock) Pleasant Hill, Cumberland County, Tennessee (Dick Riesz).

12 March 2008 (1—flying with Sandhill Crane flock) south of Crossville, Cumberland County, Tennessee (Walt Fields).

30 November 2008 (1—adult with flock of 21+ Sandhill Cranes) Wolf Creek Dam, Russell County, Kentucky (Roseanna M. Denton).

22 December 2008 (8—all leg-banded including 2 juveniles) Frank's Ferry Rd., White County, Tennessee (Edmund K. LeGrand photo and Douglas A. Downs), a CBC record, the first in the Region.

29 December 2008 (2—leg-banded) near Brushy Cemetery off of Old Rt. 28, Bledsoe County, Tennessee (Edmund K. LeGrand), a CBC record.

16 February 2009 (1—leg-banded) near The Narrows, Barren County, Kentucky (David H. Brown).

6 & 14 February 2010 (1—leg-banded [28-05; see also Individual Life Histories below]) Black Oak Rd. near Duck Pond Rd., White County, Tennessee (Douglas A. Downs [first date]; Barbara H. Stedman and Stephen J. Stedman [last date]).

6–15 February 2010 (1–2—leg-banded [27-05 and 33-05]) near Lucas and Bon Ayr, Barren County, Kentucky (David L. Roemer photo [15 February 2010; see top of account] m. ob.).

17 January 2013 (1—migrating northwest with flock of Sandhill Cranes) City Lake, Putnam County, Tennessee (Stephen J. Stedman).

6 December 2016 (1) Fred Hoover Rd., Warren County, Tennessee (N.P. "Mac" McWhirter, Susan N. McWhirter).

Regional Extreme Dates:

    Fall: 10 November 2004 (Jackson County, Tennessee; Michael J. Hawkins–29 December 2008 (Bledsoe County, Tennessee; Edmund K. LeGrand).

    Spring: 6 February 2010 (White County, Tennessee; Douglas A. Downs) and 6 February 2010 (Barren County, Kentucky; David L. Roemer–15 April 2002 (4; Fentress County, Tennessee; fide Troy Ettel).

Habitat: Often associates with Sandhill Cranes, so habitat preferences quite similar to those of that species, i.e., large, open habitats, such as those provided by mudflats along the shores of large impoundments at low (winter) pool level and agricultural fields, especially those in the post-harvest stage with some grain, etc., remaining on the ground.  The areas around Lucas, Bon Ayr, and Merry Oaks, Barren County, Kentucky, appear to afford one or both of these open habitats in abundance, leading in recent winters to a sizable (up to 20,000 during February 2010)  wintering population of Sandhill Cranes that attracts the occasional Whooping Crane to associate with them (February 2009 and February 2010). The area around Pikeville, Bledsoe County, Tennessee, also attracts moderate numbers (poorly estimated but at least up to 1,000+) of Sandhill Cranes during mid-winter, and the occasional Whooping Crane is sometimes attracted to associate with them (December 2008).  Another stopover site with moderate numbers (up to 1500+) lies in and near the Heritage Marsh, White County, Tennessee, and a Whooping Crane was attracted to associate with this group of Sandhills at least once (February 2010).

YardWatch Results 2003 and 2004: No registrations.

Remarks: The flight path of the first (fall 2001) juvenile Whooping Crane migration trainees in the eastern United States was pioneered by a group of juvenile Sandhill Crane migration trainees during the previous fall (2000).

    Juvenile Whooping Crane migration trainees passed through the Region during the autumn of seven years (2001–2007), following ultra-light aircraft from Wisconsin to Florida.  Return flights to Wisconsin were usually unassisted.  The flight path of the juvenile migration trainees was shifted westward during the 2008 and later training flights, causing these flights to bypass the Region.

    Birds from the introduced eastern flock of Whooping Cranes are not "countable" (as of 2010) by those who concern themselves with the rules relating to counting birds for list purposes as promulgated by such groups as the American Birding Association. However, the sight of a free-flying or free-standing Whooping Crane, even one with obvious leg-bands, is usually sufficient to indicate to all but the terminally brain-washed just how frivolous such rules really are.

    Since fall 2004 at least a half dozen reports of large white birds associating with flocks of Sandhill Cranes or flying alone have been made with some or even all of these probably pertaining to this species, but details of the sightings remain sketchy enough to preclude their acceptance as valid records.

    The Whooping Crane is one of the "glamour" species, like the California Condor, prevented from undergoing extinction by a massive federal effort to bring it back from the brink.  The success of the program to prevent its extinction and to re-establish a population in the Eastern United State is a testament to the far-sightedness of many biologists and legislators. The number of private citizens who have contributed in one way or another to the perpetuation of this species' existence in our midst is very large, probably numbering in the thousands, if not in the tens of thousands.

    Many records of unassisted Whooping Cranes in the Region have involved birds with leg-bands that allow individual identification.  Thus, details about the history of individual birds (see next section) in this crane population are much more complete than is the case for individuals of almost any other bird population inhabiting the Region, the lone exception among equally rare species probably being individuals in the Red-cockaded Woodpecker population of the southernmost Daniel Boone National Forest during the last decade of its existence (1990s); among more common species, the Canada Goose is probably the species for  which the lives of individual birds dwelling within the Region are most well-known (as a result of a long-term marking program conducted by D. L. Combs and associates in Putnam County, Tennessee).

Individual Life Histories (identification numbers for individual cranes refer to order in sequence of hatchings during a particular hatch year [first number] and year of hatching [second number]): 

5-05 & 6-05: Two leg-banded males stayed 17–27 March 2007 at the Grassland Unit of the University of Tennessee Experimental Agriculture Station on Ted Davis Rd., Cumberland Co., TN (Charles Brendel fide Janet Dowlen, Stephen J. Stedman photo [23 March 2007], m. ob.). Some of the history of these two cranes (courtesy Sara Zimorski, International Crane Foundation [ICF]) follows: These two cranes are #’s 5-05 & 6-05, two males, the fifth & sixth birds to hatch for the reintroduction project in 2005.  These birds were hatched at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Maryland, where they began their initial training to follow an ultralight aircraft.  In late June 2005 they were shipped to Necedah NWR, WI, where they continued their training, learned to fly, and began their first fall migration behind ultralight aircraft.  They spent the winter of 2005–2006 at the ICF release pen in Florida and came back on their own during the spring of 2006.  These two cranes have been together since summer 2006 after the large group of returning juveniles broke down into a number of smaller groups.  They migrated south and spent the winter of 2006–2007 at a large lake/wetland in Citrus County, Florida, before beginning this year’s spring migration 13 March 2007.  By 2 April 2007 these two male cranes had returned to the vicinity of Necedah NWR, Wisconsin.