Balearica pavonina
Silhouette: Sharon Wegner-Larsen · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
The black crowned crane (Balearica pavonina) is a part of the family Gruidae, along with its sister species, the grey crowned crane. It is topped with its characteristic bristle-feathered golden crown. It is usually found in the shallow wetlands of sub-Saharan Africa during the wet season, which act as its principal breeding, feeding and roosting sites although it can also be found foraging in grasslands and near croplands of dry savanna.
The black crowned crane was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the cranes and herons in the genus Ardea and coined the binomial name Ardea pavonina. He specified the type locality as Africa. Linnaeus cited earlier authors including the English naturalist George Edwards who in 1751 had included a description and a hand-colour etching of the "Crowned African Crane" in the fourth volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. The black crowned crane is now placed together with the grey crowned crane in the genus Balearica that was introduced in 1760 by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson. The genus name is from Latin Baliaricus...
Call0:17
Ethiopia · 2015
© Andrew Spencer · XC267451 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Call0:30
Chad · 2024
© Julien Birard · XC957205 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Recording0:12
Chad · 2023
© congonaturalist · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 2 | Niokolo-Koba National Park | 🇸🇳 Senegal |
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report a Black Crowned Crane sighting in Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary on a given day, based on 104 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 46th most-seen of the 173 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April
In that month about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Black Crowned Crane in Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary on a given day, against about 40% in November, the lowest month. That is one of Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary's driest months, with almost no rain against 55 mm in August. May to October have too few records to rate.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black Crowned Crane sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 2 parks where we can rate Black Crowned Crane sightings, Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary has the highest daily chance: about 50%. Next come Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal, about 10%).
Same order: Gruiformes
The closest relatives of the Black Crowned Crane that you can see in Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary (order Gruiformes, Cranes, Rails, and Allies) are Common Moorhen (about 70%), Black Crake (about 60%) and Western Swamphen (about 50%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black Crowned Crane is recorded against all the birds logged in Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary (104 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
