What do juvenile Sandhill Cranes look like?
How big are baby sandhill cranes?
When Do Baby Sandhill Cranes Moult?
What Do Baby Sandhill Cranes Eat?
How long do Sandhill Crane juvenile feathers live?
How long do baby sandhill cranes stay with their parents?
Other Differences Between Teens and Adults
Do juvenile Sandhill Cranes visit their parents?
A tall wading bird with broad wings and a distinctive red crown, the Sandhill Crane (Antigone, Canada) are a spectacular sight, gathering in large flocks during their annual migration.
Juvenile Sandhill Cranes develop rapidly after hatching, but do not reach the size and mass of full adults until 10 to 12 months old. Our guide to baby sandhill cranes looks at their development and relationship with their parents, so read on if you want to learn more.
Juvenile Sandhill Cranes are rust-colored instead of the gray and white plumage and red caps of adults. The pups are born covered in golden down and are able to leave the nest to feed within 24 hours of hatching.
Newly hatched sandhill cranes are able to walk (albeit wobble rather erratically) and swim in as little as 8 hours. Flying ability develops between 7 and 10 weeks.
Growth is rapid, with young adults reaching full adult height and weight by the end of their first year, by which time their bond with their parents has usually ended. While sandhill cranes may be fully grown by the end of their first year, they don’t breed for the first time until they are 2 or 3 years old.
To learn more about what juvenile Sandhill Cranes look like, what they eat and how much time they spend with their parents, read on.
Close-up of a juvenile Sandhill Crane in flight
What do juvenile Sandhill Cranes look like?
Juvenile sandhill cranes can be distinguished from adults by a number of characteristics, including body size, head and body plumage, eye color, beak color, and voice. The most obvious difference between adults and juveniles of this species is that the juveniles do not have bright red scaly caps.
When they first hatch, young sandhill cranes are covered in golden down, have yellow legs and feet, medium brown eyes, and pink-orange beaks. After 4 to 5 weeks after hatching, this initial down is replaced, with full feathers beginning to grow from about 8 weeks. The body and wing feathers are rust-colored, fading to a pale gray-white around their necks and faces.
A pair of sandhill crane chicks
By the end of their first year, their eye color becomes more yellow, and by age 2, their eye color changes to the brighter orange-red seen in adults. Their bills also darken to a dark gray that fades to olive at the base.
The distinctive red cap seen on the crown of an adult Sandhill Crane is not a feather, but a scaly area of exposed skin used to show aggression when defending a nesting territory.
Young Sandhill Cranes have gray forehead feathers that gradually recede by 2 to 3 years of age.
juvenile sandhill crane
How big are baby sandhill cranes?
When hatched, Sandhill Crane chicks weigh approximately 114 grams (0.25 lb). Growth was rapid, with birds gaining 14 to 17 times their body weight by 35 days. Between 10 and 12 months, juvenile sandhill cranes weigh the same as adults.
When Do Baby Sandhill Cranes Moult?
Within four to five weeks of hatching, sandhill crane chicks undergo their first molt, as their initial golden down gradually gives way to full feathers.
By 8 to 10 weeks, the adult feathers are almost fully developed, but some down remains on the head, neck and belly.
The final down is shed after about 13 to 14 weeks, leaving the chick with rusty brown plumage all over, with a pale gray neck and head.
During the first fall and winter after hatching, the rusty, light brown immature plumage is gradually replaced by the recognizable gray of the adult plumage. By 18 months of age, 83 percent of juvenile sandhill cranes had no longer had brown feathers.
Adult and juvenile Sandhill Cranes – juveniles without the red patch on the head
What Do Baby Sandhill Cranes Eat?
For the first 10 days after hatching, juvenile sandhill cranes are fed by their parents and follow the same omnivorous diet as adults: earthworms, small invertebrates, berries, insects, seeds, and small aquatic animals. Larger items may be broken down into smaller pieces by adult animals before being fed to young.
As juvenile sandhill cranes grow in size, independent foraging quickly begins and increases—juveniles spend 25 percent more time foraging than adults. Grains, gravel, and seeds feature heavily in the diet of juvenile Sandhill Cranes as they move toward independence.
Immature Sandhill Crane walking in the grass
How long do Sandhill Crane juvenile feathers live?
By the time they reach about 18 months, most juvenile Sandhill Cranes will lose their immature brown plumage and look like fully grown adult birds.
Moulting of young feathers usually occurs during the first fall and winter after hatching. Juveniles reach adult size at around 10 to 12 months, and by the time they are 2 to 3 years old, they cannot be distinguished from adults.
A young, fluffy sandhill crane with its parents
How long do baby sandhill cranes stay with their parents?
Young sandhill cranes spend most of the first year after hatching with their parents, leaving for about one to two months before the parents begin their next breeding in the ensuing breeding season.
By 12 months of age, they will no longer socialize with their parents, but will join a non-breeding flock with other young birds until they are ready to pair, which usually occurs between 2 and 7 years of age.
Juvenile and adult sandhill cranes taking off from the shore
Other Differences Between Teens and Adults
By listening to the calls between flocks of sandhill cranes, three different sounds will let you know if a baby bird is in the flock.
When hatching, sandhill crane chicks make screeches, including trills and peeps. This call can be heard even before the chicks hatch.
A high-pitched contact call, somewhat like a bark, can also be heard only in juveniles, in contrast to the grunting contact calls made by adults.
A third call unique to young sandhill cranes is the rapid stress call. When juvenile sandhill cranes are around 10 months old, they are able to produce adult sounds, and the stress call is replaced by the “guard rattling” familiar to fully grown birds.
juvenile sandhill crane about to fly
Do juvenile Sandhill Cranes visit their parents?
Once they no longer need parental support or protection, juvenile sandhill cranes join their peers in loose groups rather than continuing to live within their parent’s territory.
By the time the sandhill cranes gain independence, their parents will likely have begun hatching another batch of eggs, and the young may even have to be removed from the territory by the brooding parents.
Separation may have occurred during spring migration, in which case the juveniles and their parents do not usually recross deliberately.
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