Welcome to Crane Week! We're celebrating the world's crane species this week on the Birdorable blog, with crane facts and crane fun! Stay tuned to the blog throughout the week to learn about this family of large, long-legged birds.

To start off the week, here's a look back at some previous crane posts from our blog.

The Sandhill Crane was added to Birdorable in July 2010; it was featured as the first bird in our second annual Birdorable Bonanza in 2010. It was our 259th Birdorable bird. The Whooping Crane was added the following month. In total there are 15 living species of crane; the rest of the birds in the family have all been recently added to Birdorable.

We told you about the Midwest Crane Count which is a citizen science survey that takes place each year. In 2015, the crane count will take place on Saturday, April 18th.

Baby Sandhill Cranes and baby Whooping Cranes are very small when the first hatch, and look so different from their parents in their soft and downy yellow feathers. We featured both species as youngsters on the blog in the past.

Join us as this week continues with our celebration of the world's cranes!