Sandhill crane
| Sandhill crane Temporal range: Early Pleistocene – Recent | |
|---|---|
| Adult in Florida, USA | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Gruiformes |
| Family: | Gruidae |
| Genus: | Antigone |
| Species: | A. canadensis |
| Binomial name | |
| Antigone canadensis | |
| Subspecies | |
and see text | |
| Geographical distribution of the sandhill crane. Breeding Migration Year-round Nonbreeding | |
| Synonyms | |
and see text | |
The sandhill crane (Antigone canadensis) is a species of large cranes of North America and extreme northeastern Siberia. The common name of this bird refers to its habitat, such as the Platte River, on the edge of Nebraska's Sandhills on the American Great Plains. Sandhill cranes are known to frequent the edges of bodies of water. The central Platte River Valley in Nebraska is the most important stopover area for the nominotypical subspecies, the lesser sandhill crane (A. c. canadensis), with up to 450,000 of these birds migrating through annually.