The penalty for killing a whooping crane is $15,000.00 to $100,000.00 fine and up to 6 months in jail or 1 year in prison.
Killing a crane without the proper permits or good enough reason to do so is illegal as both sandhill cranes and whooping cranes are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 which strictly prohibits the capture, possession and killing of cranes, sandhill cranes and whooping cranes without the proper permits.
Cranes are warm blooded and lose body heat more readily and so they need to keep their leg warm by tucking one of the legs up into their body.
At night cranes tend to sleep on the widest and most open segments of a river and feed and loaf in wide open crop fields and wet meadows during the daytime.
You can tell a crane from a heron by their necks as a cranes neck is shorter than the neck of a heron and cranes also tend to hold their neck straight.
Herons curve their necks into an S shape and when they fly they pull their necks totally back and the cranes necks stick straight out.
With a good tail wind cranes can fly as far as 500 miles a day but most cranes fly at most 200 miles to 300 miles a day at 25 mph to 35 mph.
Cranes eat frogs and other small animals and rodents including snails, insects, nesting birds and lizards.
Cranes will also eat berries, roots, seeds and crop plants such as wheat grain and corn.
Animals that eat a crane are wolves, black bears, eagles, coyotes and foxes.
Cranes are omnivores and eat both plants and meat and feed on and eat a variety of grains, plant tubers, small invertebrates and vertebrates.
Carnivores eat only meat.
A flock of cranes is called a Sedge.
Cranes are a type of large bird with long legs and necks in the biological family Gruidae of the order Gruiformes.
The family of cranes has 15 species placed in four genera which are Antigone, Balearica, Leucogeranus, and Grus.
Cranes are powerful flyers, with some having the ability to fly over the Himalayas.
During migration cranes fly with their head and neck straight out and their feet and legs straight behind them.
They are able to reach heights of 4,900–8,000 meters (16,000–26,000 ft).
California in particular is special in that it supports the Central Valley population of Greater Sandhill Cranes that winters in suitable agricultural fields and wetlands of the Central Valley and breeds in northeastern California, as well as parts of Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.
Four of the species cranes are classified as Endangered.
These are the Grey Crowned, Red-crowned, Siberian and Whooping Cranes.
In addition, seven species are classified as Vulnerable, including the Black Crowned, Black-necked, Blue, Hooded, Sarus, Wattled and White-naped Cranes.
Cranes consume a wide range of food, both animal and plant matter.
When feeding on land, they consume seeds, leaves, nuts and acorns, berries, fruit, insects, worms, snails, small reptiles, mammals, and birds.
Cranes winter in Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexico.
In the early spring, they begin the migration to their breeding grounds.
Throughout the spring, the cranes can be seen resting and feeding along rivers and wetlands throughout the Great Plains and Pacific Northwest.
Cranes may look similar to herons, but they are omnivores, feeding on a wide variety of plant material and small animal life, while herons are almost entirely predatory.
Many cranes have loud, bugling calls, while the voices of herons tend more toward harsh squawks.