With its four-foot height, ear-piercing call, and six-foot wingspan; I think you’d be hard pressed to find a bird possessing more charisma than the crimson-capped sandhill crane. After a century of absence, sandhill cranes are becoming increasingly common across Iowa. Nesting cranes are currently documented in more than 40 Iowa counties with the greatest densities occurring on northern Iowa wetlands.

I’ve been spending the past few mornings attempting to photograph these magnificent birds. I used the word attempting because, despite their ongoing surge in numbers, getting close to cranes continues to present an uphill challenge. As wary as they are tall, most cranes take to the air as soon as they realize they’ve been spotted.

There are currently five breeding pairs of cranes nesting in

See Full Page