Spring Migration

Like our Whooping and Sandhill Cranes in the eastern United States, the Siberian Cranes along the east Asia flyway have started their spring migration north. Since March 27 more than 1,000 Siberian Cranes have been observed in central Liaoning Province (Liaoning Province is located northeast of Tianjin, one of our Three White Cranes project sites along the Bohai Sea in eastern China). On March 31, a banded Siberian Crane was observed in a flock of over 800 cranes in this area. The bird was banded as a chick in Yakutia, Russia in August 2005. The Siberian Cranes will migrate over 3,000 miles from their wintering grounds in the Poyang Lake Basin to their breeding and summering grounds in northeastern Russia.

Siberian Cranes in Liaoning Province. Photos by Zhou Haixiang