The Most Unexpectedly Beautiful Bird in The World: The Red-crowned Crane

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Typically known as “xianhe” in Chinese language, red crowned crane (Grus japonensis), Manchurian crane or Japanese crane is one of the world’s most beautiful and rarest animals. It is found primarily in the marshes with deep waters, bogs, wet meadows and in swamps.

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Due to its height of 1.5m it is able to stand out of its own habitat without being easily preyed upon by other predators. Interestingly, this species can weight somewhere around 7.7 to 10kg, which is considered to be the heaviest for the bird species.

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Nowadays, red-crowned cranes are listed as an endangered species. Their habitats range from a variety geographical regions of Southeast Asia, China, Japan and in the Amur River basin of the eastern Russia. They are said to live as long as 1,000 years; and that’s why they are seen as a symbolization of longevity.

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These beautiful birds display black color in their lower wings but are snow white throughout most of their body. For females, their cheeks, neck and throat are a pearly-grey, whilst in males they appear as black. Their legs are also black but their bills are an olive-green. The young are predominantly colored with a dull grayish-brown neck, black-tipped primaries and are predominantly white in color. Generally, adult red-crowned cranes have red color patch of skin on the crown of their heads. Surprisingly, when they get angry or excited, the patch of red skin on the head becomes bright red.