The cranes of Bayreuth

A white-naped crane (Grus or Antigone vipio) from the Tierpark Röhrensee, a mini-zoo situated in Bayreuth, Germany. The few cages and enclosures are distributed along the alleys of a small public park, on free display for its visitors.

I caught the birds in the middle of a preening session.

On the pictures found online, the area surrounding the birds’ eye is much more red than on these two. Could it be linked to their diet, which probably differs from the wild? Credit: Yalakom

A snow-white neck blurring the lines. Credit: Yalakom

A pretty serious bill. Credit: Yalakom

These birds are native of Eastern Asia (see range map including winter migrations below) where their conservation status is vulnerable according to the IUCN Red List. The species is mainly threatened by the destruction of wetlands, their prime habitat, through land conversion for agriculture and increasing demand for freshwater by local populations.

This problem exists in both breeding grounds (northern China, north-east Mongolia and south-east Russia) and wintering grounds (along the border between the two Koreas, in China along the Yangtze River and in Japan’s southernmost island, Kyushu). Other threats include damming, increasing human disturbance, poisoning by pesticides and diseases.

A 2012 survey estimated the total number of wild individuals to be around 5,500 to 6,500.

One of the two birds diligently preening its feathers. Credit: Yalakom

White-naped crane range map from the International Crane Foundation (ICF)

Location: Bayreuth, Germany

8 thoughts on “The cranes of Bayreuth”

It looks pretty sharp at 200mm!

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Sometimes it turns out quite sharp but I was kinda holding my camera against the fence a little and I think it was quite stable. But without tricks like this, it’s pretty hard! 🙂

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Indeed, at 200mm or 300mm equivalent, it’s difficult to take sharp images. As a rule of thumb, the shutter speed should be higher than the focal length in order to obtain sharp results when shooting handheld, i.e., at 300mm(200mm), the shutter speed should be 1/300 or faster 🙂

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