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I had the opportunity to visit the Black-Necked Crane Information Centre while I was touring Bhutan. While there I realised that I have had the opportunity to see these birds at both ends of their migration route - from Tibet in the summer, over the Himalayas (at very great altitude), to Bhutan in the winter.
In the first pictures
they are in Tibet feeding up in late summer in preparation for their
migration southwards. Those in the snow are late leavers from Tibet,
with winter just around the corner.
The last pictures show
the only crane in Bhutan while I was there. All the other birds would
have been in Tibet for the summer.
The bird in Bhutan is a
rather sad story. It was injured by a feral dog, and has had to be
retained in an enclosure, while it heals. The bird has been in its
enclose for nearly two years. My guess was that it has healed, but is
unlikely ever to be able to fly (you can see that the injury to its
left wing is extensive, and seems to have set badly), and so will not
be released to the wild.
These cranes are
sociable animals and use the crane dance for mating, but also for all
sorts of social interactions in groups of up to a dozen. While, like
most wild birds, they can be frightened by humans near by, there is
some evidence that they recognise men in the Bhutanese national
costume, and are less scared by such individuals. This individual
bird seems to have adapted somewhat to its living conditions, and
will tolerate humans at fairly close quarters. It also, on occasion,
does the crane dance when there are people there. I was very
fortunate, that it did the dance for me.
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