Willem is a wildlife artist based in South Africa. He says "My aim is simply to express the beauty and wonder that is in Nature, and to heighten people's appreciation of plants, animals and the wilderness. Not everything I paint is African! Though I've never been there, I'm also fascinated by Asia and I've done paintings of Asian rhinos and birds as well. I may in future do some of European, Australian and American species too. I'm fascinated by wild things from all over the world! I mainly paint in watercolours. . . but actually many media including 'digital' paintings with the computer!"

Having brought you the Crowned Crane and the Wattled Crane, I might as well bring you the third crane species found in South Africa – our national bird, the Blue Crane! This species lives and breeds only in South Africa and Namibia (which used to be considered part of South Africa) as well as Lesotho (which is entirely surrounded by South Africa), although it is sporadically seen in Botswana and Zimbabwe as well. Its scientific name, Anthropoides paradiseus, roughly means 'man-like thing from paradise'. The blue crane's closest relative is the Demoiselle Crane, Anthropoides virgo, of Southern Europe and western to central Asia.

Blue cranes are indeed elegant and beautiful. They aren't really blue, but a greyish with a faintly blue tint. Their foreheads and faces are white, and they have long, slender, black wing plumes overlying their tails. At 105 cm/41" in total length, they are rather small cranes. Their bills are also shorter than those of the other 'conventional' cranes, but still longer than those of the aberrant crowned cranes. They do have the typical, trumpeting crane calls. These are often heard around their colonies, resounding far over the open grasslands.

Cranes of the Plains

The habitat blue cranes favour is indeed open grassland, not at all necessarily moist, as the marshlands the other two local crane species prefer. Indeed, blue cranes occur in the subdesert region of the Karroo, and also in quite dry country around the Etosha Pan in Namibia. They eat small animals as well as vegetable foods like seeds, roots and underground bulbs and tubers. Unlike the crowned and wattled cranes, blue cranes have successfully adapted to the human presence. They have taken advantage of the large cereal farms established in much of the southern and central portions of the country. They forage in fallow fields and use spilled grains as a resource to help them through the winter. Unfortunately they sometimes plunder standing crops and some farmers persecute them by poisoning them. While they are still strong in farming areas where they are tolerated, this is a precarious situation, and in the meantime they have lost a large amount of their original grassland habitat.

Where the living suits them, blue cranes form flocks, typically about 50 or so, but sometimes 300 or more. In moist regions, they often mingle with flocks of crowned cranes. They feed together by day, and by night roost together as well, often standing in shallow water. Within the large groups, males and females that are mates will stay close together. As the breeding season approaches, the males and females start their mating displays, this often influencing other birds so that the entire flock becomes vocal and active. As with other cranes, they dance to each other, bowing their heads, showing off their long wing plumes, jumping into the air, throwing tufts of grass, sticks or clods of earth up into the air. The male and female also perform a special call, called the 'unison call': a bugle-like call that they make together, lasting a few seconds, while they raise and lower their heads and raise their wing plumes to each other.

Breeding itself starts in Spring or early Summer. Mated pairs will partition themselves in suitable nesting habitat. They prefer to nest near damp or marshy ground, scraping out a simple hollow, sometimes making a low rim around it with stones, animal droppings or pieces of vegetation. Blue crane females usually lay two eggs. The chicks hatch covered with dense, short, tawny-brown down, and leave the nest immediately, from there on following their mother and father who will feed them and teach them to find food. The parents use soft calls to keep in touch with the chicks, sounding like 'grok grok' (if I ever raise an orphan baby blue crane I'll call it Valentine Michael Smith). At first, most of their growth goes into their legs, and a six-week-old blue crane can outrun a typical adult human! Although they can fly at the age of 12 to 13 weeks, they remain with their parents until the age of about ten months.

A National Icon

In South Africa, this species is celebrated. Ever since we've had our own currency, the blue crane has been depicted upon our five cent coins. It is also on stamps. But more importantly, living blue cranes are easily seen, since they become very tame and are therefore kept in aviaries and in parks, where people can approach them closely. There is no need to keep them in cages or to clip their wings – they simply stay around. The photos you see here were taken of cranes living in such parks – the face photo was taken by my cousin Jaco, and the full crane was taken by myself. But in spite of their presence in so many zoos and parks, these cranes still need all our efforts to protect them in the wild.

Colours of Wildlife Archive

Willem

27.07.15 Front Page

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