Common Crane

The Common Crane is a medium-sized species of Old World crane. They are migratory, with a large breeding range that spans across much of Eastern Europe through Asia. They winter in northern and eastern Africa, southern Europe, parts of the Middle East, and far eastern Asia.

While breeding season will find these birds in solitary pairs, they are fairly gregarious outside of breeding, with flocks of up to 400 birds staying together during migration and flocks of thousands of cranes congregating on staging grounds.

Though the Common Crane is now extirpated from Ireland (they are no longer found in the wild there), the species figures in Irish folklore and culture. The bird has been absent from Ireland for more than 200 years. Despite this and other local extirpations, the species is not globally threatened.