Greater sandhill cranes are among the most iconic migratory waterbirds of western North America. Commonly considered seasonal harbingers, their movements throughout the predominantly rural landscapes of the Intermountain West are often celebrated with festivals and are timed with seasonal cycles important to agricultural communities.
Sandhill cranes are inextricably linked to ranching and working lands. Their annual life cycles are linked to water availability and hydrologic cycles, especially those provided by irrigated agriculture. Sandhill cranes spend winter months in the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico. As they move between wintering grounds and breeding grounds in the Rocky Mountains and Northern Great Plains, they rely on a network of public and private stopover sites for food and shelter to fuel their annual journeys. Flood-irrigated grass hay provides 60 percent of the wetlands supporting breeding sandhill cranes in the Intermountain West.
A 2024 study, Flood-irrigated agriculture mediates climate-induced wetland scarcity for summering sandhill cranes in western North America, pinpoints key breeding habitat for sandhill cranes in the Intermountain West. The research indicates that cranes rely on riparian corridors and associated flood-irrigated grass hay meadows for breeding and colt-rearing during spring and summer months—areas that are threatened by human development and increasing water scarcity due to climate change.
A 2021 study identifies the landscapes and wetland sites most important to sustaining the seasonal migrations of greater sandhill cranes as they move between wintering grounds and breeding habitat. The paper, Migration efficiency sustains connectivity across agroecological networks supporting sandhill crane migration, paints the picture of an intricately connected network of habitat spread across the West—much of which is under threat from climate change and human development.
Summer breeding habitat and stopover sites are almost always located within the riparian corridors—the “ribbons of green”—that weave across the Intermountain West’s otherwise arid landscape. Cranes are thought to act as an indicator for riparian and wetland ecosystems, as their preferred habitat conditions support a variety of other migratory birds and wildlife.
Since 2016, the IWJV and partners have worked to develop conservation science using sandhill cranes to inform wetland conservation strategies supporting migratory flyways in the Intermountain West. Research has leveraged roughly 150 birds marked with GPS tags and over nine million individual locations to construct detailed breeding distributions and migratory pathways. Results provide new insight into how sandhill cranes use habitat and rely on agricultural practices that support core breeding and migration stopover sites. Long-term habitat monitoring implemented with these studies has identified functional wetland loss (i.e., wetland drying) and agricultural land use change as key threats to populations. This science provides a road map to wetland conservation that prioritizes local actions, benefitting the maintenance of flyway habitat networks sustaining sandhill cranes and associated migratory waterbirds in Western North America.
Partners
Partners ordered by relative contribution. All U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service contributions are from the Migratory Bird Program.
Supporting Science
iwjv@iwjv.org
Instagram
Facebook