Sarus Crane

Antigone antigone (Linnaeus, 1758)

≈120 cmLength250 cmWingspan5.9 kgWeight

The tallest bird capable of flight, the adult has a gray body and a red head and upper neck.

Busiest months: December–February · Most records: India, Cambodia, Australia

How to identify

Field marks

Adult has a gray body and red bare skin on the head and upper neck
Neck held straight in flight; wingtips black
Legs and feet red or pink, trailing behind in flight

Male, female and young

Sexes have the same colors, with male generally larger; juvenile darker and browner, with a fully feathered head.

Voice

Gives loud trumpeting during territorial display and courtship.

Where and when it's recorded

Sarus Crane has been recorded at 72 of the 8,171 birding hotspots we track, in 7 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

To protect this bird from disturbance, we don't list exact sites.

Countries and regions with the most records

India Cambodia Australia Thailand Nepal Myanmar (Burma)Vietnam

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The sarus crane (Antigone antigone) is a large nonmigratory crane found in parts of the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and northern Australia. The tallest of the flying birds, standing at a height of up to 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in), they are a conspicuous species of open wetlands in South Asia, seasonally flooded Dipterocarpus forests in Southeast Asia, and Eucalyptus-dominated woodlands and grasslands in Australia.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

Questions

How big is the Sarus Crane?

The Sarus Crane is about ≈120 cm long, with a wingspan of 250 cm and weighs around 5.9 kg.

Where does the Sarus Crane live?

Its breeding range: Oriental, Australasia: northern India, Southeast Asia and northern Australia. It is most often recorded in India, Cambodia and Australia.