Grus canadensis
Silhouette: Sharon Wegner-Larsen · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~70% in a week ~90%
The sandhill crane (Antigone canadensis) is a species of large crane of North America and extreme northeastern Siberia. The common name of this bird refers to its habitat, such as the Platte River, on the edge of Nebraska's Sandhills on the American Great Plains. Sandhill cranes are known to frequent the edges of bodies of water. The central Platte River Valley in Nebraska is the most important stopover area for the nominotypical subspecies, the lesser sandhill crane (A. c. canadensis), with up to 450,000 of these birds migrating through annually.
In 1750, British naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the sandhill crane in the third volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds, referring to the species as the 'Brown and Ash-colour'd Crane'. Edwards based his hand-colored etching on a preserved specimen that had been brought to London from the Hudson Bay area of Canada by James Isham. When in 1758, Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the 10th edition, he placed the sandhill crane with herons and cranes in the genus Ardea. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Ardea canadensis... Wikipedia →
Recording0:03
United States · 2025
© Ben Borgmann-Winter · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:09
Canada · 2025
© mkurys · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:10
United States · 2026
© Frank Hassler · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wood Buffalo National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 2 | Yellowstone National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Isle Royale National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Grand Teton National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Padre Island National Seashore | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Point Pelee National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 7 | Everglades National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Riding Mountain National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 9 | Katmai National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Elk Island National Park | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 11 | Great Bear Rainforest | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 12 | Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 13 | Glacier National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 14 | Big Cypress National Preserve | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 15 | Voyageurs National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 16 | Guadalupe Mountains National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 17 | Denali National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 18 | Olympic National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 19 | Big Bend National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anchorage | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Orlando | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Sacramento | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Vancouver | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 5 | Edmonton | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 6 | Chicago | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Minneapolis [Saint Paul] | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Detroit | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Salt Lake City | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Denver | 🇺🇸 United States |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Sandhill Crane sighting in Yellowstone National Park on a given day, based on 2,199 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 17th most-seen of the 197 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April and May
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Sandhill Crane in Yellowstone National Park on a given day, against about 10% in October to March, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Sandhill 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 19
Of the 19 parks where we can rate Sandhill Crane sightings, Yellowstone National Park ranks 2nd at about 30%. The best odds are in Wood Buffalo National Park (Canada, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same order: Gruiformes
The closest relatives of the Sandhill Crane that you can see in Yellowstone National Park (order Gruiformes, Cranes, Rails, and Allies) are American Coot (about 30%) and Sora (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Sandhill Crane is recorded against all the birds logged in Yellowstone National Park (2,199 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.
