Sarus crane

The sarus crane (Antigone antigone) is a large crane that lives in the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia and Australia. It does not migrate.  It is the tallest bird in the world that can fly. It can grow to 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall.These and other figures refer to the Indian subspecies, Grus antigone antigone.Wood T.C. & Krajewsky C. 1996. Mitochondrial DNA sequence variation among the subspecies of Sarus Crane (Grus antigone) (PDF). The Auk 113 (3): 655–663.   Its wing can reach 2.4 metres (8 ft) from tip to tip.  It can weigh 8.4 kg (18.5 lb). It lives in open wetlands.

Appearance and habitat

It is easy to tell the sarus crane apart from other cranes that live in the same places. The sarus crane is grey in colour with a red head and part of the neck. The sarus crane looks for food in marshes and shallow wetlands.  

It eats roots, tubers, insects, crustaceans, and small vertebrate prey. Like other cranes, the sarus crane forms long-lasting pairs and holds territories. There they perform territorial and courtship displays which include loud trumpeting, leaps and dance-like movements.

It lives in wetlands, and in agricultural lands close to humans. Elsewhere, the species has been eliminated in many parts of its former range.

The main breeding season is during the rainy season, when the pair builds an enormous nest "island", a circular platform of reeds and grasses about two meters in diameter and high enough to stay above the water. 

Threats
There are fewer sarus cranes than there were a hundred years ago. The cranes alive today are perhaps 2.5% of the numbers that existed in the 1850s. The stronghold of the species is Rajasthan, India.

 References 

 Other websites 

 International Crane Foundation: Sarus Crane, Grus antigone . Retrieved 2007-FEB-22.
 Sarus Crane (International Crane Foundation) 
 Sarus Crane (Grus antigone) from Cranes of the World (1983) by Paul Johnsgard

Category:Cranes
Category:Birds of Asia
Category:State symbols of Uttar Pradesh
Category:Birds of Australia