Bugler Crane
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For more information about native cranes, see this post.
Bugler
Crane, Leucogeranus
leucolaimos L 90-130 cm, H 100-130 cm,
WS 180-200 cm, Family: Gruidae
IUCN Conservation Status: Vulnerable (VU)
Description:
Very
large, tall bird with long neck and long legs, straight bill, and plump “tail”.
Grayish overall, with darker wings, a lighter body, and white head and neck. The
face is covered by a patch of bare red skin which brightens during the breeding
season. Eyes yellow, bill sharp and dark, and legs pinkish. In flight, neck and
legs are kept outstretched and wings are gray, with secondary feathers which
appear like a tail when wings folded, though the true tail is white. Juveniles
are mostly rust colored. One of the tallest birds on Novasola, shorter than the
Black Crane. Adults can be distinguished from Black Cranes by their smaller
size and inverted color patterns; while the Black Crane is mostly dark with
white wings and dark legs, the Bugler Crane is mostly white with dark wings and
light legs. Leg color can be helpful. Large individuals average around 5 kg in weight, making the Bugler Crane among the largest birds on Novasola, generally considered the sixth-heaviest native bird.
Voice:
Bugler
Cranes lack the complex tracheal foils of other cranes; thus their calls are
simpler. Two most common calls are a short, blasting bugle call, called a
“guard call”, used as a warning or alarm call, and a “unison call”, a courtship
and breeding call given by mated pairs in unison. Single calls are often described
as sounding like higher-pitched goose honking, and females are higher-pitched
than males during duets. They also give low pitched soft calls while feeding
near their mates. Quite vocal, they call frequently, especially in flocks, and
are extremely loud.
Range and Habitat:
In
summer, Bugler Cranes can be found across Novasola, as well as Kosatka and the
Francis Islands, avoiding the high elevation of the upper Paramounts. During winter,
they migrate to the southern coasts and along Fairweather and Charlotte Sounds
and in the Twin River basin. Their preferred breeding habitats consist of
wetlands, marshes, and floodplains, as well as meadows and grasslands, and
wintering habitat includes wetlands, marshes, estuaries, mudflats, salt flats, prairies,
as well as burned areas and upland meadows. They are more likely to be found in
rangeland, agricultural fields, grassland, and scrubland during migration.
Discussion:
Much
like the rarer Black Crane, the Bugler Crane is well-known, in part due to its long-standing
association with Novasola, which during the 18th Century was
described as “the land of cranes”, and even featured as one of the supporters on
the Novasola coat of arms. Like other crane species, the Bugler Crane has suffered
severe population declines and is now somewhat uncommon, but they have been
incredibly successful at rebounding from the brink of extinction.
Somewhat
common now, Bugler Cranes saw drastic population declines in the past two
centuries due to overhunting and habitat destruction, much like the related Black
Crane. Unlike the Black Crane, however, which was thought to always have been
rare, the Bugler Crane was incredibly numerous before European colonization of
Novasola, and some early accounts of crane population numbers by colonists suggest
they were the most numerous wetland bird on the island. When Francisco Ricci mapped
Novasola’s coastline in 1760, his crew made sporadic landfall and made numerous
references to cranes and Ricci himself wrote about observing mixed flocks of
Black and Bugler Cranes. So impressed by the birds’ seeming abundance, Morgan Fairweather
even adopted both crane species for the colony’s coat of arms, and his crew
encountered hundreds of cranes along the coastal marshes near Cape George. However,
crane hunting was common, and even when bans were put in place, poaching of
cranes for feathers continued. Meanwhile, wetlands and prairie waterholes were
disproportionately affected by development. By the first few decades of the 20th
Century, Buglers were nearly extinct, with an estimated total population of 100
individuals. This mirrors what happened to cranes across the world. The closely
related Siberian Crane is incredibly rare, and critically endangered with an
estimated 3,500 remaining, while the Black Crane with which Buglers share
habitat went from 32 individuals in 1945 to approximately 1,600 individuals. With
protections, however, Bugler Cranes have fared better than other species and
have rebounded dramatically. They now have an estimated wild population of 25,000
individuals and are considered Vulnerable by the IUCN. Considered a
conservation success story, the Bugler Crane’s highlights the possibility to
protect endemic fauna, but also highlights questions or concerns for other
species, like the Black Crane or numerous other endemic birds for which conservation
efforts have been less effective.
Bugler
Crane habitat consists mostly of marshes and wetlands. During the winter cranes
may be seen in a variety of fresh and saltwater marshes, estuaries and rivers, mudflats,
coastal areas, meadows, agricultural fields, grasslands, prairie, and occasionally
sparse forests or savannah, while their summer breeding grounds are usually
more limited to wetlands, lakes, and ponds. While they are comfortable around
human development in general, breeding grounds are usually further from human
disturbances when possible. Bugler Cranes are semi-migratory, with many
populations remaining in areas year-round and other, more northern breeding
populations migrating to the south for winter, especially during harsh winters.
These migrations are usually dictated by the severity of snowfall. During
migration cranes will form flocks which can range in size from a handful to hundreds
of pairs. These flocks, especially larger ones, may also include Black Cranes,
which share habitat preferences generally. Though both species can be found
flocked together, their differences in size, plumage, and calls help
distinguish them. Bugler Cranes have been used in captive rearing programs as
surrogate parents for Black Crane chicks, which has led some conservationists
to speculate that many of the behaviors exhibited by the modern Black Crane
population may have been introduced by or learned from those Bugler surrogates.
In
breeding Bugler Cranes are monogamous and mate for life, remaining with their mates
throughout the year. Like other cranes, they engage in elaborate courtship
displays called dances. Both members of the pair will perform energetic leaps
and jumps, run in circles, stomp their feet, flap their wings, and toss back
their heads with curved necks and raised wings, all the while giving loud, unison
or duet calls. These dances are obvious and may last several minutes. There are
several kinds of dances, some for courtship and others post-mating, which are
thought to improve pair bonds. Both males and females dance, and both will help
build the nest and raise chick, though only females incubate eggs, while the
male defends the territory.
The
Bugler Crane’s diet consists mostly of aquatic vegetation like shoots, leaves, and
roots, but may also include invertebrates and small vertebrates like crustaceans,
amphibians, fish, and rodents. They forage on the ground or in shallow water by
probing the surface or soil with their bills or feet for vegetation or prey and
will impale larger prey with their bills. When near water they will often stick
their entire heads underwater to forage. Their faces, and bills especially, are
frequently covered or caked in mud as a result, and they often clean their heads
and bills by wiping the mud onto their neck and body feathers. In drier areas or
away from water they are more likely to feed on small animals. Unlike herons
which wait patiently and motionless to ambush prey, cranes stalk slowly but at
a steady pace, eventually covering great areas on foot.
Since
the first observations by Europeans in the 1700s, Bugler Cranes have always
been considered a unique species. Where and how they fit within the greater
crane evolutionary tree, however, has been subject to much debate and change,
and is still contentious today. The naturalist George York Baker first
described the Bugler Crane for science in 1780 and placed it in the genus Grus.
Later, the crane was moved to the basal genus Leucogeranus with the
Siberian Crane, thought to be its closest relative, but this is still not
accepted by all authorities. Proponents of this placement point to similarities
between Bugler and Siberian cranes, including a bald face, pink legs, a
simplified trachea unlike that of most other cranes, sounds and calls, and
similar feeding strategies. Others are quick to point out major differences in
the two species, for example that while Bugler Cranes are only semi-migratory
and for short distances, Siberian Cranes are the longest distance migrants of all
cranes. DNA studies have yet to fully settle the matter.
Cranes
have inspired people and cultures across the globe, and this is no less true
for Novasolan indigenous cultures. Most Taiyalun and Yukandaluk cultures call
the bird kingiqudgaq, translating to “little brother crane”, while
eastern tribal languages use the term aantkeen’lax, which likely translates
to “crane or the people” or “crane of large crowds”. Both endemic crane species
are culturally important to indigenous Novasolans and play a major role in
native storytelling, mythology, and art, especially among prairie tribes. Crane
Dances are common ritual ceremonies which invoke the breeding displays of
cranes where participants are dressed in elaborate crane feather costumes.
Originally
described in 1780, and described as incredibly common, the Bugler Crane was
well-known to Richard Reichwald by the time of the NRC expeditions in 1902, but
by then they were already much less common, with a population smaller than 500
individuals. Thus, Reichwald had only a few personal encounters or observations
off which to base any writings in the ten years before the publishing of Native
Birds, and he was forced to use many supplemental materials to complete his
entry. Despite incredible efforts to observe the cranes in the wild, Reichwald
only observed a handful of flocks before his death in 1948, and did not live to
see their populations recover.
“The
lands to the north of the bay abound with game and fowl of the most elegant
variety. Most prominent among them are the large, piebald cranes which populate
the river outlets and grassy flats. They are much outnumbered by a second,
smaller crane of lighter plumage, which is less impressive in stature but
wholly more vociferous… [Bugler Cranes] emit a near constant chorus of inelegant
honking, which echoes through every valley.” – Ship log fragment, Francisco
Ricci voyage, 1760. Translated from Italian.
-
“The
camp is located on a long, narrow arm of land extending east and northwards
into the sea, creating a shallow bay to its west. The western and southern
coasts of the peninsula are foliated by dense stands of imposing and grand
conifers and meet the sea with rocky faces, while the inner coasts slope gently
to the bay. The lower edges of this bay consist mostly of flooded lowlands and
marshes populated densely by reeds and grasses which give way to coastal heath
and stunted evergreens. Seafowl proliferate in these marshes, and all are
overshadowed by the lordly character of the numerous cranes.
…
The
majesty and grandeur of these birds are matched nearly by their multitude, for
this is a land of cranes, where at times flocks may extend to the horizon and
may be heard from an impressive and perhaps unmatched distance.
…
There
seems to be no area of the coast which is not inhabited by great numbers of the
white crane, which unlike the pied crane also seem to inhabit the uplands .” –
Sir Morgan Fairweather, 1780
-
“The
Bugler Crane, as described by Mr. Baker, was so named for its habit of incessant
calling. The crane’s voice is extraordinarily loud, though no more so than that
of the Black Crane which nonetheless more often chooses silence, and sounds
reminiscent of geese. This loud singular honking which carries far and precedes
any visual clues to their location may be the only reliable way to find the
otherwise illusive bird.
…
I
have read numerous reports of the Bugler dealing a great strife to farmers, who
claim to have had entire flocks of the fowl descend upon a corner potato field and
proceed to lay waste to the entire crop. This is difficult to imagine after
having myself explored much of the country and found an entirely different
ratio of birds to farms than described. Furthermore, in my observations these
birds have shown no interest in man or the fruits of man’s labor. Instead, I
have had success finding the crane only in remote river valleys or isolated
swamps which may never have seen the likes of the white man, and revealing themselves
to civilization only on the coasts during particularly harsh winters.
…
The
greatest numbers of these birds may be found along the upper shores of the Massalick
and along the many oxbows and ponds of the upper Kusasha, where I have found
them reliably. Along the Massalick was also the kingdom of the Pied Crane. However,
like the egret, both cranes are most commonly seen through the streets of Cape
George, as with the streets of many great American cities, adorning the heads
of so many fine social ladies. Indeed, so full of feathers are the public
spaces of society that these may soon be the only places to see such plumage. And
who does not benefit? After all, it is so much easier to familiarize oneself
with a hat than a bird who so expertly hides itself in the remote and lonely
corners of paradise.” – Native Birds
of Novasola, 1912