Daur crane

A bird with a height of about 190 cm and a weight of 5.6 kg. The only crane species in which the legs have a pinkish tint and wide white stripes run along the neck. There are patches of red bare skin around the eyes. The plumage of most of the body of adult birds is dark gray; wing and cover feathers of the wings are lighter and have a silver tint. Sexual dimorphism (visible differences between male and female) is not pronounced, although males look somewhat larger.

In young birds, the feathers on the head and front of the neck are red, and the wing feathers and tail are dark gray.

The natural range of the Daurian crane is located in Asia - nesting sites are common in the historical region of Dauria (hence the name) and include Northeast China , Northeast Mongolia and the adjacent territories of southeastern Russia. In the Russian Federation, it can be found in the Trans-Baikal Territory in the basin of the Aguts and Onon rivers ; in the Jewish Autonomous Region , on the shores of Lake Khanka , in the Khingan Reserve and its Arkharin branch, along the Amur and Ussuri rivers .

In winter, about 2,000 birds of the eastern population migrate to the area of ​​the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea (in particular, the mouth of the Hangan River, the Cholvon Basin and the lower reaches of the Imjin River ^{[2] [3]} ), and about 300 follow further and stop in area of ​​Japanese about. Izumi. There is a single case of observation of these birds in Taiwan . ^[4] Birds of the western population (about 3,000 birds) migrate to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China, as well as to the Yellow River Valley and Lake Poing . ^{[5] [6]}

Earlier, the number of Daurian cranes was much higher, and the range covered a large territory, but as a result of human activities and military operations, the population of these birds declined sharply and reached a critical level during the Second World War and the Korean War. ^{[7] [8]}

It lives in moist swampy meadows, overgrown with reedweed ( Calamagrostis ) and sedge ; river valleys and lacustrine hollows.

The puberty of Daurian cranes in the wild occurs in the third or fourth year of life. Monogamous, couples persist throughout life.

As with other types of cranes, the consisted couple celebrate their connection with a joint characteristic singing, which usually comes out with a bowed head and a beak raised vertically upward and is a series of complex drawn out melodic sounds. In this case, the male always spreads its wings, and the female keeps them folded. The female begins to shout first and makes two exclamations for each exclamation of the male. Courtship is accompanied by characteristic crane dances, which may include bouncing, diving, flapping wings, tossing bunches of grass and tilting.

Cranes arrive at the nesting sites in early April, when ice melts in the swamps. The nest is usually built on an open area on the edge of a swamp with high grass vegetation near agricultural land and is a mound of dry grass, mainly from sedge, with a small indentation in the middle. ^{[4] The} same nest can be used for several years in a row, and every year it is completed and repaired. Often a couple builds several nests during a season, but eggs are laid only in one. The intensity of nesting depends on natural conditions: for example, in Mongolia, in the basin of a lake surrounded by sedge thickets, three pairs of breeding cranes were recorded on a 5-km stretch, while in the absence of lakes it falls to one pair per 8 km. ^[9] In China, breeding sites may intersect with Japanese cranes. In the mating season, cranes are more aggressive in guarding their territory, and during hatching and hatching, they behave more calmly with respect to aliens.

The female usually lays two eggs (less often one) in mid-April - mid-May. If for any reason the first clutch died, the female is able to lay eggs again. The average egg size is 9.45 × 5.43 cm. ^[10] The incubation period lasts 28–32 days. Chicks become winged after 70-75 days.

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  Marriage dance

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  Joint song

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  Egg

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  Incubation

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  Chick

Daurian cranes are omnivorous - feed on both plant and animal food. The main diet consists of rhizomes and shoots of aquatic plants, insects , fish , shrimp and other small vertebrates . They can be found feeding on crops in rice , corn , soy and wheat crops.

The Daurian crane is under threat of extinction and is included in the lists of the International Red Book and Red Book of Russia, and is also prohibited by international trade ( CITES List). Although in recent years there has been a tendency to increase the population of these birds in some regions, their numbers are gradually decreasing in Russia and China.

The main risk factor for this species is the drainage of wetlands suitable for nesting as a result of human activities, land development for agricultural purposes, land reclamation , construction of dams , forest fires and disturbance caused by human presence.

• Vertebrates of Russia: the Daurian Crane
• Website of the International Crane Protection Fund
• IUCN / SSC: Status Survey and Crane Protection Plan
• Red Crane Daurian Crane