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Sanctuary on the Platte
Visit the cranes’ spring home on the Platte with Rowe Sanctuary director Paul Tebbel.
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Nature on the Wing
Photographer Joel Sartore says, “For me, it’s the biggest wildlife spectacle on the planet.” Find out why.
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Charismatic Birds
Experience the thrill of watching cranes dance, call, and take flight by the thousands.
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National Audubon’s Rowe Sanctuary, Nebraska
Find more facts about cranes and other wildlife that make their home on the Platte.
Michael Forsberg Photography
View more of Forsberg’s extraordinary photography and learn about his upcoming book on sandhill cranes.
Joel Sartore Photography
See more of Sartore’s extraordinary photography and learn about endangered species and habitats.
National Geographic Field Guide to Birds
Find a comprehensive series of affordable, pocket-sized, regional bird field guides for birders of all levels.
Kearney Chamber of Commerce
Want to see the cranes? Find travel information about this town, famous for its annual crane migration.
Nebraska Travel & Tourism
Look up more attractions, events, and tourism information for the Cornhusker State.
National Audubon Society
Find a watch list for endangered birds and learn how to get involved in conservation efforts.
International Crane Foundation
Get educational resources, then search a free digital library about cranes.
Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Use its Biological Resources and Publications Database tools to find studies on sandhill cranes and their shrinking habitat on the Platte.
Crane Meadows Nature Center
Find out about crane tours and public hiking trails along the Platte River.
“The Crane Attraction,” Statewide, March 24, 2000
Join a group of sandhill crane watchers visiting the Platte via video from this weekly news journal’s website.
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Flash 6 required to view video. Click here to download.
By Miki Meek
Swirling gray masses of sandhill cranes descend on south-central Nebraska each year, heralding the arrival of spring and the largest gathering of cranes in the world. The Platte River Valley becomes a six-week pit stop from late February to early April for a half million sandhill cranes journeying north to their Arctic breeding grounds.
“It’s one of the world’s greatest migration spectacles,” says Paul Tebbel, director of the National Audubon Society’s Rowe Sanctuary in Nebraska. “Everywhere you look, there are cranes in the air.” Considered a premiere viewing spot for sandhill cranes, the sanctuary is also the site of National Geographic’s Crane Cam.
As one of the world’s oldest bird species, these elegant, red-headed birds—also known as Grus canadensis—have been a part of Nebraska’s landscape for more than nine million years. And for them, the Platte is the perfect place to take a break during their migration. Lean after traveling from their winter homes in New Mexico, Texas, and northern Mexico, these omnivorous cranes spend their days feasting in farm fields and wet meadows surrounding the Platte. Eating insects and waste corn enables them to pack up to two pounds (one kilogram) on their stately frames, which weigh 6 to12 pounds (3 to 5.5 kilograms) and roughly stand four-feet (one-meter) tall with a six-foot (two-meter) wingspan. This vital energy reserve helps ensure the cranes’ survival and reproductive success after they leave the Platte for Canada, Alaska, and Siberia.
Aside from providing precious nutrients, the Platte is also a haven. As the day comes to a close, thousands of cranes return from the fields to seek refuge in the middle of the wide, shallow Platte River. From its submerged sandbars, the cranes have a 360-degree view while they roost, which helps them keep an eye out for approaching
predators such as coyotes and eagles.
Once these birds roosted and fed along 200 miles (320 kilometers) of the Platte River. Today’s habitat covers only 80 miles (130 kilometers)—the minimum biologists believe necessary to sustain the birds’ awesome migration. Dams, irrigation, development, and power plants have decreased the river’s once powerful flow by 70 percent, allowing tree and shrub seedlings to settle in and grow over once prime roosting spots. Further, some 75 percent of the area’s grasslands and nutrient-rich wet meadows near the Platte have been lost to agriculture and gravel mining.
The valley is also a critical migration stop for 20 million other northbound migratory birds, including highly endangered species such as the whooping crane, piping plover, and interior least tern. For several years conservation groups, farmers, and political leaders in Nebraska have been working on setting aside water for these birds and increasing their already preserved habitat from 14,000 acres (5,650 hectares) to 29,000 acres (11,750 hectares). In the near future they hope U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton, and the governors of Nebraska, Wyoming, and Colorado—whose states use the Platte’s water—will sign an agreement to ratify the increase.
Despite this habitat loss, sandhill cranes are thriving as the most abundant of the world’s 15 crane species, with nine currently endangered. National Geographic wildlife photographer Joel Sartore, a native Nebraskan who has been going to the Platte on and off for the past 20 years, hopes the cranes will keep flourishing.
“Once you’ve gone to the Platte, you’ll want to keep going throughout your life,” he says. “Whether you’re taking pictures or not, it’s just a great place to be.”
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