Description
Adult Red-crowned Cranes are named for a patch of red bare skin on the crown, which becomes brighter in the mating season. Overall, they are snow white in color with black on the wing secondaries, which can appears almost like a black tail when the birds are standing, but the real tail feathers are actually white. Males are black on the cheeks, throat and neck in males, while females are pearly gray in these spots. The bill is olive green to greenish horn, the legs are slaty to grayish black, and the iris is dark brown.
This species is among the largest cranes, typically measuring about 150 to 158 cm (4 ft 10 in to 5 ft 2 in) tall and 120–150 cm (3 ft 10 in–4 ft 10 in) in length (from bill to tail tip). Across the large wingspan, the Red-crowned crane measures 220–250 cm (7 ft 3 in–8 ft 2 in). Typical body weight can range from 7 to 10.5 kg (15 to 23 lb), with males being slightly larger and heavier than females and weight ranging higher just prior to migration. On average, it is the heaviest crane species, although both the Sarus and Wattled Crane can grow taller and exceed this species in linear measurements. The maximum known weight of the Red-crowned Crane is 15 kg (33 lb). Among standard measurements, the wing chord measures 56–67 cm (22–26 in), the exposed culmen measures 13.5–16.7 cm (5.3–6.6 in) and the tarsus measures 25.5–30.1 cm (10.0–11.9 in).
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“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)