Red-crowned Crane (Grus japonensis) Fact Sheet: Physical Characteristics

Body measurements

• A mostly white, large terrestrial wading bird, bare forehead and crown, exposing red skin
• Blackish neck with white nape
• Eyes black, legs slate to gray-black, bill greenish-yellow

• Males only slightly larger than females

• Only three cranes in world are mostly white; they are also very endangered (Britton & Hayashida 1981)
• Siberian white crane
• Whooping crane
• Red-crowned crane
• Primary feathers white; all other cranes' primary feathers are black or dark gray (Archibald & Meine 1996)
  • Gray primaries are structurally stronger
  • Red-crowned cranes' white primaries are structurally weaker
  • Perhaps originally all populations were non-migratory, with no need for strong flight feathers
• Black secondary and tertiary feathers
• Hatchlings reddish brown
• Juveniles white, cinnamon brown, gray
• White primaries appear in juvenile's 2nd year
• Molt annually (Neufeldt 1981)
• All flight feathers fall out simultaneously every 2 years; cranes are temporarily flightless (Neufeldt 1981)

Cranes differ in following ways from storks, herons, egrets:

• Proportionally longer legs and necks held straighter than herons
• Proportionally larger bodies than egrets
• Smaller bill, longer legs, lighter bodies than storks 
• Storks build nests in trees, on houses; egrets and herons in trees and bushes, cranes on ground

Red-crowned Cranes turn from a cinnamon brown color to white as adults. They molt their feathers each year.

Image credit: © San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. All rights reserved.

Archibald & Meine (1996)
Britton & Hayashida (1981)
International Crane Foundation (2011)
Neufeldt (1981)