Whooping Cranes: A Song That Was Nearly Silenced

The Whooping Crane is the tallest flying bird in North America. These huge white cranes with a black mask and a splash of red on the crown came perilously close to extinction. By the 1940s, just 15 individuals remained in the wild. Decades of conservation efforts – both kooky and conventional – have helped their number grow to nearly 800. Today, the only self-sustaining wild flock migrates between Canada and Texas, while other populations survive with help from captive breeding programs.

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Whopping Cranes: A Song That Was Nearly Silenced
Written by Javier Bravo and Lucina Melesio

This is BirdNote.

[Whooping Crane ambi]

Standing nearly five feet tall, the Whooping Crane is the tallest flying bird in North America. These huge white cranes with a black mask and a splash of red on the crown came perilously close to extinction.

By the 1940s, illegal hunting and egg collecting left just 15 birds in the wild. The sound that gave them their name…

[Whooping Crane call]

….was nearly silenced forever. [call fades out and leaves a beat of silence] To bring these elegant birds back from the brink, conservationists tried some… unusual approaches.

[Whooping Crane flock]

Some of the earliest efforts involved raising chicks in captivity so they could be reintroduced to the wild. To ensure that the young birds didn’t imprint on humans, their caretakers disguised themselves with white smocks and crane-shaped hand puppets.

Until 2016, ultralight aircraft pilots taught some youngsters how to migrate by guiding the flock along a 1,200-mile route from Wisconsin to Florida.

[Whooping Crane flock]

More recent — and conventional — efforts focus on protecting key nesting and wintering sites, tracking the birds by plane and satellite, and even marking power lines with high-vis tags to prevent collisions. It may not be as flashy as cranes following ultralights or caretakers in costumes, but this steady, behind-the-scenes work has paid off. There are nearly 800 Whooping Cranes flying free today, each doing their part to make sure their song is never silenced.

For BirdNote, I’m Sheky Espejo.

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Senior Producer: Mark Bramhill
Producer: Sam Johnson
Producer: Kizaya Studios
Managing Producer: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Ariana Remmel
Content Director: Jonese Franklin

Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Whooping Crane ML632518264 recorded by Nate Shipley. Whooping Crane ML267590321 recorded by John Patterson.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2025 BirdNote November 2025
Narrator: Sheky Espejo

ID# WHCR-04-2025-11-25 WHCR-04

Reference:
https://savingcranes.org/news/resources/safeguarding-cranes-amid-energy…