Physical discription: gray, red skin on top of their head, long legged, and long-necked.

Key characteristics: they resemble herons and egrets in body shape, but tend to have heavier bodies, and males are usually heavier than females.

Size: standing they're around 5.9 to 6.5 feet

Weight: 7.2 to 8.3 pounds

Life Span: up to 20 or more years old

Difference between male/female: male is generally a couple inches taller than a female.

Kingdom - Animalia

Phylum - Chordata

Class - Aves

Order - Gruifroemes

Family - Gruidae

Genus - Antigone

Species - A. Canadensis

All subspecies: there is the lesser, greater, and Canadian sandhill crane.

Length of existence: 2 million years.

Closest living relative: the Great Blue Heron and Great Egret.

Ancestors: the well known ancestor to the sandhill crane is most commonly known as the Crowned Crane, a prehistoric bird thats nearly 10 million years old.

Rainfall: doesnt bother them since they typically like places with water, like most birds they wont fly in heavy storms but they can fly in the rain.

Plants: bushes, trees, brush, leaves, and other various kinds of grass.

Animals: usually live around other species of birds, as well as insects, fish, small rodents, etc.

Temperature: their normal body tempurature is 105° F, so even though they're well insulated for the cold they still migrate towards the south in the winter.

Terrain: they like flooded feilds, marshes, and slow moving rivers to sleep since they have lost the ability to perch on branches.

Continents found: North America (typically south of the US & Canada), and also Northern Europe.

Invasive: no they’re actually endangered.

What does it eat: plants, grains, and sometimes invertebrates, ambhipibians, reptiles, and even small mammals.

How often: given their size and weight they can eat a pretty big meal, theyre also opportunistic eaters so they eat whenever they find something they like. 

How does it get food: they scavenge prey from the surface of the ground, and can also capture subsurface food from the bottom of lakes, and soft soils such as mud.

Any special food: corn kernels, other crops and fruits.

Live in packs or solo: they live in packs

Roles within community: they often appear in pastures or open praries, but they also help the communtiy by cleaning up vegetation growth. They also provide prey to other animals such as coyote and wolves.

Male or female led groups: typically male led.

Individuals that make up the group: usually live in pairs of a group of mates, or they'll stay in their family group throughout the year.

How do they inteact with eachother: cranes are known to be very social birds. They're also very loyal to one another, once they find a mate, they will continue to be with them until the end.

Predation: since sandhill cranes are ground birds, they're very prone to predation. Mammals such as coyotes, cougars, bobcats, raccoons, and foxes are all predators of the sandhill crane.

Sexual competition: they're very competitive when it comes to sexual competition. They don't necessarily physically fight, but they do dances to show off and make loud whistling calls to compete with other males.

Disease: the primary disease they're known to carry is called Disseminated visceral coccidiosis (DVC), but they may also carry small parasitic worms called Coccidia.

Other causes: humans, habitat loss, other natural causes.