The worlds tallest flying bird has been getting a new lease of life in the Indian state where it enjoys the status of official state bird – Uttar Pradesh (UP). Uttar Pradesh is known as a stronghold of the sarus crane, Indias only resident breeding crane.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has included this bird in its red list of threatened species (also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book). As per bird count data of 2018, there were only around 25,000 Sarus Cranes in the entire world, and significantly the birds in Uttar Pradesh make up more than half the global population at around 14000.
Last Sunday, on a rainy and cloudy morning we were looking for monsoon birds in the wetlands and cultivated lands near Sultanpur, in Gurugram when we heard the "call", followed by another, then another. We followed the calls and saw two pairs of Sarus cranes in the paddy lands running, hopping and jumping. Surroundings were filled with their calls.
"It's their (Sarus) mating calls," said the birder and photographer Kamal Sahansi. Sarus cranes often make vocal calls together, known as a "unison call", the male starts the call while the female finishes.
When courting a mate, the male Sarus engages in elaborate "dances" interlaced with loud trumpeting calls. He hops, skips, and jumps to get their would-be mate's attention.
The male is about 6 ft tall, his wings spread over 8-10 feet and dancing in front of the female who is slightly shorter than the male. The bare red skin of the adult's head and neck are brighter during the breeding monsoon season.
While the rest of the body is light grey, the adult has a white-collar separating the red of the upper neck and the grey below. It was a sheer joy to watch them together. Like other cranes, the Sarus cranes form long-lasting pair bonds. They are considered symbols of marital fidelity, believed to mate for life and pine the loss of their mates, even to the point of starving to death. They are a symbol of marital virtue and in parts of Gujarat, taking a newlywed couple to see a pair of sarus cranes is customary. (IANS/SB)
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