The whooping crane migrates between Canada’s Wood Buffalo National Park and Texas’s Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.
The principal wild migratory population breeds in and around Wood Buffalo National Park in Alberta and the Northwest Territories. It winters on the Texas Gulf Coast, especially at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and nearby coastal habitats. The migration route crosses the Great Plains and includes important stopover wetlands.
Whooping cranes are North America’s tallest birds, standing about 1.5 metres tall. Their population fell to only 21 wild birds in 1941, largely because of habitat loss and hunting. Protection, captive breeding, and careful management helped the wild population recover, although the species remains endangered.
The name refers to the crane’s loud, resonant call rather than to a sound made while migrating. Whooping cranes are white with black wingtips, a red crown, and a dark facial mask. They are distinct from sandhill cranes, which are smaller and gray, and from introduced experimental populations that use other routes.