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The common crane (Grus grus), also known as the Eurasian crane, is a bird of the family Gruidae, the cranes.A medium-sized species, it is the only crane commonly found in Europe besides the demoiselle crane (Grus virgo) and the Siberian crane (Leucogeranus leucogeranus) that only are regular in the far eastern part of the continent.
Crane movements are well known for their fluidity and grace. [citation needed] In Japan, the crane is one of the mystical or holy creatures (others include the dragon and the tortoise) and symbolizes good fortune and longevity because of its fabled life span of a thousand years.
Gruiform means "crane-like". Traditionally, a number of wading and terrestrial bird families that did not seem to belong to any other order were classified together as Gruiformes. These include 15 species of large cranes , about 145 species of smaller crakes and rails , as well as a variety of families comprising one to three species , such as ...
The name Grus is the Latin word for "crane". [2] The German ornithologist Peter Simon Pallas was sometimes credited with erecting the genus in 1766 [ 3 ] but the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature ruled in 1956 that Brisson should have priority.
The species with the smallest estimated population is the whooping crane, which is conservatively thought to number 50–249 mature individuals, [5] and the one with the largest is the sandhill crane, which has an estimated population of 450,000–550,000 mature individuals.
A common crane photographed in Slimbridge. Cranes are large, long-legged and long-necked birds of the order Gruiformes.Two species occur as wild birds in Great Britain: the common crane (Grus grus), a scarce migrant and very localised breeding resident currently being reintroduced to the country, and the sandhill crane (Antigone canadensis), an extreme vagrant from North America.
The whooping crane (Grus americana) is an endangered crane species, native to North America, [3] [1] named for its "whooping" calls. Along with the sandhill crane ( Antigone canadensis ), it is one of only two crane species native to North America, and it is also the tallest North American bird species. [ 3 ]
The red-crowned crane is also a symbol of nobility. Depictions of the crane have been found in Shang dynasty tombs and Zhou dynasty ceremonial bronzeware. A common theme in later Chinese art is the reclusive scholar who cultivates bamboo and keeps cranes. Some literati even reared cranes and trained them to dance to guqin music.