{"id":9591,"date":"2013-09-26T03:45:10","date_gmt":"2013-09-26T09:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=9591"},"modified":"2025-02-25T07:12:59","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T13:12:59","slug":"stained-and-unstained-sandhill-cranes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/09\/26\/stained-and-unstained-sandhill-cranes\/","title":{"rendered":"Stained and Unstained Sandhill Cranes"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few days ago I saw quite a few Sandhill Cranes starting at\u00a0just past the Visitors Center for Bear\u00a0River National Wildlife Refuge, in one of the farmer’s fields I saw 11 of them feeding in\u00a0the freshly tilled soil.<\/p>\n

\"Unstained“Unstained” adult Sandhill Crane – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/2000, ISO 640, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I didn’t take any images of them because there were too far away and the sun hadn’t yet fully risen. Later on I spotted two more Sandhill adults in a field that I did take images of even though I would have preferred them to be closer.<\/p>\n

During this time of the year\u00a0many of the Sandhill Cranes I see are mostly soft mousey gray in color but…<\/p>\n

\"Stained “Stained” adult Sandhill Crane – Nikon D300, f8, 1\/1600, ISO 640, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

They can look like they are anywhere from drab clay colored to cinnamon rufous because their plumage gets stained by water, vegetation, and mud.<\/p>\n

Sandhill Cranes intentionally rub their plumage with soil and the color of the soil can determine what color the stain becomes.\u00a0 A freshly molted crane will appear pale to slate colored gray.<\/p>\n

Normally the stains are mid-neck or below but the crane above shows staining up the neck into the chin and upper throat.<\/p>\n

I thought photos comparing stained and unstained Sandhill Cranes would be interesting for my viewers who aren’t familiar with them.<\/p>\n

Stained or unstained I think Sandhill Cranes are quite lovely for living fossils<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my Sandhill Crane photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few days ago I saw quite a few Sandhill Cranes starting at just past the Visitors Center for Bear River National Wildlife Refuge, in one of the farmer’s fields I saw 11 of them feeding in the freshly tilled soil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":140801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[124,1513,27,223,12,450,26],"tags":[4004,4259,3823,3132,4953,4109,4094,1053,4057,4518,2359,2360,4307],"class_list":["post-9591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-beaverhead-county-montana","category-avian","category-centennial-valley","category-montana","category-sandhill-cranes","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-antigone-canadensis","tag-crane","tag-cranes","tag-freshly-molted","tag-grasses","tag-marsh","tag-plumage","tag-sagebrush","tag-sandhill-crane","tag-stained","tag-unstained","tag-wildflowers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t