VICTOR, Idaho — As evening temperatures begin to cool, the sandhill cranes of the Rocky Mountains will soon migrate to warmer wintering grounds.
On Aug. 25, Buckrail photographer Nick Sulzer found this flock of cranes foraging near the Teton River in Victor, Idaho.
While cranes are adaptable birds that can live in different habitats, they typically form flocks near water sources such as marshes, pools, river estuaries, deltas, lakes, rivers and coastlines. Sandhill cranes can be seen foraging for acorns, earthworms, mole crickets and turf grubs in open fields and marshy meadows.
According to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD), there are two populations of cranes that occupy the northern states during different times of the year. The most commonly seen Rocky Mountain Population (RMP), which breeds and migrates through Wyoming, is composed of greater sandhill cranes. WGFD’s management goal is to maintain this species’ population between 17,000 to 21,000 birds.
The RMP populations will move south from their nesting grounds in Idaho, Wyoming and other western states to regions in New Mexico, Arizona and central Mexico. These long-legged birds typically begin their fall migration in mid-to-late September, with the migration lasting until mid-November, per WGFD.
The other, larger population — the Mid-Continent Population (MCP) — is composed primarily of lesser sandhill cranes. Around mid-October, these birds will only migrate through Wyoming on their way from their breeding grounds in Canada and Alaska to wintering grounds in the southern U.S. and Mexico. The WGFD has a management goal of 349,000 to 472,000 for this population.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wrote on its website that greater sandhill cranes are larger, with males averaging around 10 pounds and females slightly smaller, while lesser sandhill cranes are smaller, typically weighing between 6 to 7 pounds.
