Habitat
On the e. Copper River Delta, cranes roost primarily in wetlands associated with medium shrub and intertidal mudflat habitats, and feed primarily in wet meadow habitats (Herter 1982). On the Y-K Delta (and probably on the Copper River) breeding habitat is located in wet marsh or sedge meadow areas of the tundra (Boise 1976). Broods spend most of their time in taller Elymus vegetation along slough banks, heath tundra, and short-grass meadows (Tacha et al. 1992).
References
Boise, C. M. 1976. Breeding biology of the Lesser Sandhill Crane Grus canadensis candensis (L.) on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska. M.S. thesis. Univ. Alaska, Fairbanks.
Herter, D. R. 1982. Staging of Sandhill Cranes on the Copper River Delta, Alaska, pp. 273-280 in Proc. 1981 Int. Crane Workshop (J. C. Lewis, ed). Nat. Audubon Soc., Tavernier, FL.
Tacha, T. C., S. A. Niesbitt, and P. A. Vohs. 1992. Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis). In The Birds of North America, Vol. 1, No. 31 (A. Poole, P. Stettenheim, and F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, D.C.: The American Ornithologists’ Union.
