To get back to their nesting home in the Yampa Valley, the birds follow invisible sky trails carved out by their ancestors over thousands and thousands of years-possibly nesting right next to your luxury ranch home in Steamboat, at Marabou. Parents teach their chicks, or colts, to dance, and young cranes practice dancing for years before selecting a mate. Dancing contributes to pair bonding, and is a prelude to courtship, but cranes also dance, much like humans, when they’re excited, frustrated or just need to let loose. We were enthralled by the way the cranes just appear as specks high in the sky and spiral down in twos or threes, hundreds at a time. I’ll just let these pictures tell you of our visit. You may also recognize them from their dancing, which can easily be seen from our Colorado luxury ranches. One of the amazing sites, and sights, of birding Southern Arizona is Whitewater Draw, the winter home of thousands of Sandhill Cranes.

DJ King KannonBackYard Band Still In The Game Live Et 2018 BOUNCE BEAT RECORDSRelease.

One of their most beautiful features is a bright red skin patch on their foreheads, a nd the cry of the Sandhill crane is among the most distinctive sounds in the animal kingdom. Provided to YouTube by DistroKidBackYard Band Sky Cranes 2018 (Live)

Realistic postures make them full of vitality, creating a delightful and vivid atmosphere to decorate your home. Adult cranes have grey feathers, but during breeding season they “paint” them with iron-rich mud and vegetation turning themselves a rust color that helps with camouflage. Elevate your garden decoration with these striking crane sculptures The taller crane is raising neck to look the sky, while the other one seems to be indulging in self-admiration. How will you know them? Greater Sandhill Cranes stand about 4.5-5 ft. The Greater Sandhill Crane is an iconic species of the Yampa Valley, raising their young in wetland areas throughout the valley. And with more than two miles of private Elk River access, Marabou Ranch in Steamboat could be the place where you see them from your own backyard. And Greater Sandhill Cranes were part of Colorado’s prehistoric ecology for thousands, and perhaps millions, of years prior to the first appearance of humans. Cranes are beautiful to watch and most people don’t know that they are the oldest living species of bird dating back 10 million years.

Backyard cranes in the sky