SANDHILL CRANE

Abstract

The Sandhill Crane breeds from ne. Siberia to Baffin I and S to ne. California and Ohio, and winters to c. Mexico and the Gulf States through Florida and Cuba, where localized resident populations also exists (Dement'ev and Gladkov 1951a, AOU 1998). It had been placed in genus Grus until separated into Antigone by the AOU (2016). Vagrants have been recorded in Japan, ne. N America, Europe, and the Southeastern Hawaiian Islands, where there is a single record. On 23 Oct 1933 a farmer captured a first-fall Sandhill Crane in a field near Kahuku, O’ahu. Despite attempts to keep it alive it perished, and the specimen was sold to the B.P. Bishop Museum (BPBM 6268; HRBP 5471-5474 of specimen) for $5.00. Measurements of the specimen (PP examination) indicate that it was of the "Lesser Sandhill Crane" (A.c. canadensis) which breeds in Arctic Siberia-N America, is a long-distance migrant, and is thus the expected subspecies in Hawaii. Bryan (1958) and Berger (1972, 1981) considered it a possible escape but we here consider it a natural vagrant. The identity of a "Chinese Crane" collected on Laysan in the winter of 1902-1903 and sent to Shaunisland in Germany (A. Wetmore in Olson 1996b) needs to be confirmed through specimen examination, if a specimen exists, or ever did.