Common crane: illustrated description
Overview
- Status in Provence (in 2025): the wintering population is constantly growing.
- Note: grey cranes are currently (November 2025) victims of an outbreak of avian influenza.
Physical characteristics
- Height: approximately 110 to 140 cm
- Wingspan: typically 200 to 250 cm (2 m to 2.5 m) depending on the source.
- Weight: approximately 4 to 6 kg for an adult, sometimes up to 7 kg.
- Plumage: mainly ash grey on the body.
- Head & neck:
- The forehead is dark grey, edged with black. This differs from the Japanese crane, which has a completely red crown.
- The back of the forehead has an area of bare red skin, characteristic of common cranes.
- A white stripe runs diagonally from the eye to the back of the neck.
- The neck and throat are black in adults.
- Sexual dimorphism is not very pronounced.
Habitat
- During the breeding season, the common crane lives in wetlands.
- During the migration or wintering period, the common crane inhabits more ‘open’ areas where it can feed (on seeds and plants): such as large wetlands by the sea or inland (marshes, large lakes), or fields and cultivated areas close to water.
- In Provence: the species winters in the wetlands of the Camargue (roosts), then feeds in the surrounding cultivated areas (rice fields, for example).
Diet
The common crane is omnivorous.
It is an opportunistic bird: it adapts to the season and/or region it is passing through.
- NESTING
The common crane adopts a diet rich in animal protein during nesting (breeding and rearing young): insects, molluscs, amphibians, small vertebrates. - MIGRATION & WINTERING
The common crane’s diet becomes granivorous and vegetarian again: cereal seeds, acorns, olives, tubers, young shoots, grasses.
This diet allows them to accumulate the fat reserves they need for the long distances they travel during migration.
Reproduction
- February: mating rituals
- The pair is generally monogamous for life and sometimes reuses or rebuilds a new nest each year.
- Nest: platform of vegetation placed on the water or in a very humid environment, concealed.
- Clutch: typically 1 to 2 eggs, olive-brown to reddish-brown in colour.
- Incubation: approximately 4 weeks, carried out by both parents.
- Young common cranes:
- Young common cranes are able to move around shortly after hatching.
- When they are 2 months old, young common cranes take flight.
Common crane: migration facts
Migration of common cranes in France
The common crane is a major migratory species in Europe.
Migration is a complex subject, regardless of the species in question. However, here are a few key points to remember about common cranes.
Every year in Europe, there are two migration movements of common cranes:
- One to spend the winter in southern Europe (in autumn)
- The other to return to nest in northern Europe (in spring)
They cross France on a north-east to south-west axis in autumn, and south-west to north-east in spring.
During the autumn migration, when common cranes come to spend the winter, two routes are taken:
- route 1: northeast to southwest Europe (‘main corridor’) to stop in Spain, ‘bypassing’ central France to the north,
- route 2: northeast to southern France (Camargue), descending through Eastern Europe and northern Italy. They fly along the Durance valley (river) and thus benefit from upward currents.
Wintering of grey cranes in Provence
Wintering in Provence, in the Camargue Nature Reserve, has been growing rapidly since the 2000s (statistics from 2025).
The common cranes leave their roosts (wetlands) early in the morning to go to the surrounding fields. They return at dusk.
These are two opportunities to observe their flights (and their famous ‘V-shaped flight formation’).
How to recognise common cranes flight?
In addition to the famous ‘V’ formation of common cranes when they fly, in order to properly recognise a flight of cranes, it is necessary to distinguish them from three other species that often share the same habitat and certain other characteristics (flying in groups or physical appearance, for example).
The following four species must be distinguished:
- Common cranes
- flight in groups (often in a ‘V’ formation)
- very ‘elongated’ silhouette: neck stretched out and legs extended behind the body.
- Grey geese
- flight in groups
- silhouette in flight: legs are shorter than those of common cranes (they do not extend beyond the tail)
- Grey herons
- silhouette in flight: the neck is not stretched like that of the common crane, but bent.
- Cormorants
- silhouette: smaller than the common crane
- flight: it flaps its wings faster
They can be recognised by the intermittent cries (rallies) they make during flight to stay together as a group.
V-shaped flight: to optimise their energy, common cranes fly in a V formation. The bird at the tip of the V expends the most energy in the group and creates a slipstream for the rest of the group. When it gets tired, another bird takes its place.
Soaring: like vultures, common cranes use updrafts to glide for several kilometres, thereby optimising their energy reserves.
You will find the sources of information at the bottom of this page.
Common crane: scientific classification
- Domain: biota
- Kingdom: animalia
- Phylum: chordata
- Class: aves
- Order: gruiformes
- Family: gruidae
- Genus: Grus
- Species: Grus grus
Sources: