Anthropoides virgo
Silhouette: Kai Caspar · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
The demoiselle crane (Grus virgo) is a species of crane found in central Eurosiberia, ranging from the Black Sea to Mongolia and Northeast China. There is also a small breeding population in Turkey. These cranes are migratory birds. Birds from western Eurasia will spend the winter in Africa while the birds from Asia, Mongolia and China will spend the winter in the Indian subcontinent. The bird is symbolically significant in the culture of India, where it is known as koonj or kurjaa.
The demoiselle 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 herons and cranes in the genus Ardea and coined the binomial name Ardea virgo. He specified the type locality as the orient but this has been restricted to India. Linnaeus cited the accounts by earlier authors. The English naturalist Eleazar Albin had described and illustrated the "Numidian crane" in 1738. Albin explained that: "This Bird is called Demoiselles by reason of certain ways of acting that it has, wherein it seems to imitate the Gestures of a Woman who affects a Grace in her Walking, Obeisances, and Dancing". Linnaeus also... Wikipedia →
Recording0:14
Russia · 2021
© Марина Горбунова-Ëлкина · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:16
Russia · 2024
© Anastasiia Merkulova · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:22
Russia · 2025
© olegek777 · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park | 🇲🇳 Mongolia | |
| 2 | Keoladeo National Park | 🇮🇳 India |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jodhpur | 🇮🇳 India |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Demoiselle Crane sighting in Keoladeo National Park on a given day, based on 10 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 257th most-seen of the 278 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Demoiselle Crane in Keoladeo National Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Demoiselle Crane sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 2
Of the 2 parks where we can rate Demoiselle Crane sightings, Keoladeo National Park ranks 2nd at under 5%. The best odds are in Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park (Mongolia, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Demoiselle Crane is recorded against all the birds logged in Keoladeo National Park (10 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.
