Scientific name: Anthropoides paradiseus
The blue crane is a tall, ground-dwelling bird, but is fairly small by the standards of the crane family.This crane is pale blue-gray in colour becoming darker on the upper head, neck and nape. From the crown to the lores, the plumage is distinctly lighter, sometimes whitish. The bill is ochre to greyish, with a pink tinge. The long wingtip feathers which trail to the ground. The primaries are black to slate grey, with dark coverts and blackish on the secondaries. Unlike most cranes, it has a relatively large head and a proportionately thin neck. Juveniles are similar but slightly lighter, with tawny coloration on the head, and no long wing plumes.
Endemic to southern Africa, mainly in South Africa while largely excluding the Northern Cape and Limpopo Province, with a small, isolated population at Etosha National Park in northern Namibia. It generally prefers open grassland, dwarf shrubland and cultivated land.Blue cranes are birds of the dry grassy uplands, usually the pastured grasses of hills, valleys, and plains with a few scattered trees. They prefer areas in the nesting season that have access to both upland and wetland areas, though they feed almost entirely in dry areas.
Omnivorous, eating a wide variety of plant matter, insects, other invertebrates and small vertebrates, doing most of its foraging by pecking the ground or digging with its bill.
