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| Common Name: | East African crowned crane | Family: | Gruidae |
| Latin Name: | Balearica regulorum gibbericeps | Diet: | Omnivore |
| Type: | Bird | Habitat: | Grasslands |
| Native To: | Africa | Social Unit: | Group |
| IUCN Red List Status: | Vulnerable |
East African crowned cranes at Edinburgh Zoo
Edinburgh Zoo has two East African crowned cranes: one male and one female. The male was hatched in 2000, and came to Edinburgh Zoo in 2009 from the Lotherton Hall Bird Garden in Leeds, United Kingdom. Our female was hatched in 2002 and came to us from Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic in 2004.
Edinburgh Zoo’s keepers feed our East African crowned cranes chopped fruit and vegetables, crane pellets, seeds and insects. In the summer, the keepers let the aviary grass grow long. The cranes feed on the grasses’ seed heads, just as this species does in the wild.
Edinburgh Zoo’s East African crowned cranes will hopefully be seen (and heard!) performing their spectacular courtship display down in the African Aviary during the spring and summer months. The pair was introduced to each other in summer of 2009 and we hope that they will form a breeding pair for the future.
Where it can be found at Edinburgh Zoo
Our East African crowned cranes can be found in the African Aviary, which is located next to the Painting Hunting Dog enclosure. They share this enclosure with vulturine guineafowl, Madagascar teal, lilac-breasted roller, violet turaco, hamerkop and Kirk’s dik-dik.
East African crowned cranes in the wild
The East African crowned crane (Balearica regulorum gibbericeps), also known as the Crested Crane, is a sub-species of the Grey Crowned Crane. The East African sub-species can be found in the eastern areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Kenya south through Tanzania to Mozambique. They live usually in marshes and grassy flatlands near the rivers and lakes and also inhabit cultivated land.
Their diet consists of plants, seed heads, new tips of grasses, grain, insects, frogs, worms, snakes, small fish and the eggs of water animals. They stamp as they walk so insects are flushed out for the waiting crane to eat.
Crowned cranes nest in pairs, but often flock together and roost communally at night, sometimes building flocks of over 100. During the breeding season the female lays between 2 to 3 eggs which both parents incubate for approximately 4 weeks. Both parents feed the young until they leave the nest.
IUCN Red List category: Vulnerable
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