Endangered whooping cranes are back at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge

Pulling into the parking lot of the observation area at the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, the cacophonous howl of thousands of cranes barking greets visitors before they even open their car doors.

Just a few hundred yards away from the parking area is a small glassed-in observation building behind the visitors center where visitors can see thousands of sandhill cranes, and if they’re lucky, one of the 17 critically endangered whooping cranes riding out the winter in Alabama’s Tennessee River Valley.

Standing around five feet tall, the whooping crane is the tallest bird in North America, and one of the most endangered. The total North American whooping crane population is estimated to be 815, but the eastern migratory population, which summers and breeds in Wisconsin before traveling to Alabama or sometimes Georgia or Florida for the winter is just 85 birds.

The sandhill cranes look huge at four feet tall, with mottled gray feathers and a striking red mask around their eyes, until you see a whooping crane standing among their midst, a full foot taller with brilliant white feathers and black-tipped wings.

“[The observation building] really is the best place to view the cranes east of the Mississippi, for sure, and it may be the best place to view them in North America,” said AJ Binney, a whooping crane program assistant at the International Crane Foundation, who spends November to February tracking and observing the whooping cranes in Alabama.

Binney said the tinted glass in the observation building allows people to get close up views without disturbing or scaring off the birds.

“They come closer [to the observation building] than they do anywhere else. You know, this year alone, I probably have been within 20 yards of a whooping crane for more than two hours.”

The cranes spend most of their winter time at Wheeler roaming the refuge’s 35,000 protected acres, foraging for food. The huge birds are omnivores, happy to eat crustaceans, insects, small fish or amphibians as well as grains, acorns or marsh plants.

“They’re what we like to call active foragers, so they’re really just walking along and if they find something that looks edible, they’re gonna give it a try,” Binney said. “They’re not picky eaters.”

At night, Binney said the cranes will sleep like flamingos, perched on one leg, usually in shallow water, with a head tucked under a wing.

Teresa Adams, supervisory park ranger for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at Wheeler, said the whoopers have been in Wheeler since 2003, but the population is not steadily increasing, as they would hope.

“None of the chicks that hatched in the spring survived, which is not good,” Adams said. “The population I think at one time had reached around 105, and now it’s back down to 85.”

Whoopers were historically widespread across North America, with some populations migrating across the continent and some remaining in warmer areas year-round. Though widespread, the Fish and Wildlife Service believes the birds never had huge populations, peaking at perhaps 10,000. Whooping crane populations were reduced to just 16 individuals in the 1940s, thanks to hunting and habitat loss.

Viewing the cranes

The observation building and visitors center is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (but closed on Christmas Day), and includes educational and historical information on the area and short hiking trails.

At last count, there were 17 whooping cranes and about 9,000 sandhill cranes on the Refuge, though both numbers may go up by early January, as more birds migrate south for winter. Adams said the refuge has seen as many 29 whoopers in a single year and as many as 20,000 sandhills.

In addition to the cranes, the refuge hosts thousands of white pelicans, ducks, and other waterfowl, making it one of the more popular winter birding sites in the country.

“Winter has always been our busy time of year with visitors, because of the migratory birds whether it’s ducks, geese, now cranes and of course the whooping crane is icing on the cake,” Adams said.

Festival of the Cranes

On January 11-12, the refuge will host the seventh annual Festival of the Cranes, with two days of crane-centered events and activities.

The festival will include workshops and educational programming at the refuge and participating venues in nearby Decatur, as well as a concert by Kathy Mattea, a screening of Ben Raines’ film “America’s Amazon,” and a visit from the birds at Auburn University’s Southeast Raptor Center.

Parking on the refuge is limited, so a shuttle service will be operating from the Princess Theater in Decatur during the festival. Rides are $2 and exact change is required.

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