The feathers are gray, with a bare red patch on the skin of the forehead. Sandhill cranes are migratory, and travel in large, noisy flocks, their bugling calls reaching far ahead of them. They fly wedged in formation, with outstretched necks and legs. As sandhill cranes descend to land, they gracefully twirl and twist like aerial dancers. Greater sandhill cranes are the largest of six subspecies of sandhill cranes.
Many cultures consider cranes to be birds of peace.
In European folklore cranes bring babies. In Japan, cranes are honored as symbols of long life and happy marriage. North American, African, and Australian native cultures incorporated the crane's graceful dances and movement into their own dances and ceremonies. In gold rush days in California, cranes were a popular Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. If you could go back in time to this period - you would see cranes, tiny horses and giant rhinos roaming what is now North America.