Sarus Crane

Found in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Burma. In Nepal, mostly found in Lumbini and Western terai regions. The species has been extinct from Malaysia, Thailand and Phillipines

Description: It is a very large crane, averaging 156 cm (5 ft) in length, which is found in freshwater marshes and plains. Adults are grey with a bare red head and white crown and a long dark pointed bill. In flight, the long neck is kept straight and the black wing tips can be seen; their long red or pink legs trail behind them. The sexes do not differ in color, but young birds are duller and browner. On average the male is larger than the female; Indian males can attain a maximum height of approximately 200 cm (6.6 ft), with a wingspan of 250 cm (8.5 ft), making them the world's tallest living flying bird. The average weight is 7.3 kg.

Conservation status: Listed in DNPWC 2029 Act Appendix I, CITES Appendix I and IUCN Red Data Book as lower risk/near threatened. The species has historically been widely distributed on the lowlands of India along the Gangetic plains, extending south to the Godavari River, west to coastal Gujarat, the Tharparkar District of Pakistan,and east to West Bengal and Assam. The species no longer breeds in the Punjab, though it occurs sporadically on the Indian side in winter. Sarus Cranes are rare and occur in very low numbers in West Bengal and Assam, and are no longer found in the state of Bihar. In Nepal, its distribution is restricted to the western lowland plains, with most of the population occurring in Rupandehi, Kapilvastu, and Nawalparasi districts. There are two distinct populations of Sarus Cranes in South-east Asia: the northern population in China and Burma, and the southern population in Cambodia and Vietnam. The Sarus used to extend to Thailand and further east into the Philippines, but became extinct. In 2011, captive bred cranes were reintroduced into Thailand. In Australia they are found only in the northern parts, and are partly migratory in some areas.The global range has shrunk and the largest occupied area is now in India. With marshlands largely destroyed, these cranes are increasingly dependent on wet paddy fields in India. Although now found mainly at a low elevation on the plains, there are some historical records from highland marshes further north in Harkit Sar and Kahag in Kashmir. The Sarus Crane breeds in some high elevation regions such as near the Pong Dam in Himachal Pradesh, where populations may be growing in response to increasing rice cultivation along the reservoir. Sarus Cranes preferentially use wetlands or uncultivated patches amid flooded rice paddies (locally called khet-taavad) for nesting in India. Breeding pairs are territorial and prefer to forage in natural wetlands, though wet crops like rice and wheat are also frequented.