Demoiselle Cranes

Being a bit of a crane fan I had to go and see the three juvenile Demoiselle Cranes recently introduced at the World Wetlands exhibit at the WWT London Wetland Centre. They're here for three years after which they'll be taken back to Martin Mere WWT for breeding. The viewing area at the Asia rice paddy exhibit unfortunately faces into the winter sun all day, or is in the shade due to the low sun, so its difficult to get nice images. Full story from WWT here.

In the wild these cranes breed from the Black Sea across Central Asia to the far East and winter in India/Pakistan and north-east Africa. Remnant populations occur in eastern Turkey and possibly still in Morocco. Next year I hoping to go back to Hornborgasjön to photograph Eurasian Crane and New Mexico for Sandhill Cranes.

More on Demoiselles:

International Crane Foundation

BirdLife International Species Fact Sheet

... and now a few wild birds from today