Do sandhill cranes eat fish (2023 Update)

When I went out to get the mail a sandhill crane flew away from on top of the storage building, overlooking the stock tank.

They've been around before and never been a problem. I like seeing them around when they drink from the stock tank.

When I poured in some fish food I watched for the fish to swarm around and eat, there wasn't any fish. There had been four large eight inch, two large four inch, and the rest were around three inches, but skinny. There were seventeen, now there are none.

I poked around with a stick, and still no fish.

Never before have fish been missing after I've seen sandhill cranes.

As you might be able to tell, I'm disappointed.

Reply to
cowabunga dude
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Sandhill cranes are fairly social birds that usually live in pairs or family groups through the year. During migration and winter, unrelated cranes come together to form "survival groups"** that forage and roost together. Such groups often congregate at migration and winter sites, sometimes in the thousands.

Sandhill cranes are mainly herbivorous, but eat various types of food, depending on availability. They often feed with their bills down to the ground as they root around for seeds and other foods, in shallow wetlands with vegetation or various upland habitats. Cranes readily eat cultivated foods such as corn, wheat, cottonseed, and sorghum. Waste corn is useful to cranes preparing for migration, providing them with nutrients for the long journey.[18] Among northern races of sandhill cranes, the diet is most varied, especially among breeding birds. They variously feed on berries, small mammals, insects, snails, reptiles, and amphibians.

**which cranes call militias.

Everything but fish, and many of your fish sound bigger than small mammals (mice?) and amphibians (small? frogs?) I get the feeling the amphhibians are on land when they catch them.

So I don't think so.

Reply to
micky

Sandhill cranes are omnivorous, meaning they eat a variety of plant and animal matter. Some of their favorite meal items include seeds, plant tubers, grains, berries, insects, earthworms, mice, snakes, lizards, frogs and crayfish. Unlike other wading birds, such as herons, sandhill cranes do not "fish."

Of course this assumes you have the right name for the bird. Lots of pictures on the web, but I'm feeling nostalgic so I'm going to look in my World Book Encylopedia. Where did I put that?

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Reply to
micky

A blue heron wouldn't have snuck in by chance?

Reply to
Dean Hoffman

I'd think unless it's a _very_ shallow tank highly unlikely; they are marsh and/or land feeders, not divers. Primarily seeds, cultivated grains and the like altho are considered omnivars, the larger fish would be extreme and outside their range. I'd guess something else got 'em, not the cranes.

Reply to
dpb

I'm fairly certain they're sandhill cranes since this is the desert area of west Texas.

They fly over in large flocks. A few stragglers will stop off and drink at the stock tank. Up north around Muleshoe you can see them by the thousands on the ground.

One time one landed right after I got home and before I could get out of the truck. I tried moving slowly to take its picture, but the first sign of movement it was gone.

There is a lot of farming spread out around the area.

Reply to
cowabunga dude

Supposedly, something like 80% of them fly through Nebraska and stop along the Platte River in the spring. There's something like a visitor's center at, I think, Wood River, NE. Lots of bird watchers, I guess. It doesn't seem like we have the good old slow spring thaws with lots of standing water like years ago. The geese and ducks don't hang around the southeast part of the state like in the past. OR so it seems. I don't live in the Platte Valley so can't really say how things are there in the spring.

Reply to
Dean Hoffman

I agree with that. Cranes, egrets, herons and ibis will eat just about anything they can get in their mouth. A big blue heron will eat a fish a pelican can't get down. That red/brown cap on their head is the best way to identify a sandhill. They may be rare but most golf courses are full of them around here.

Reply to
gfretwell

Your neighbor invited me to a fish fry he is having tonight. He said you could not make it buy would be there in spirit, sort of.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

I think my favorite bird may be the Osprey although we do get a lot of Eagles down here these days. Both of them will pluck a fish out of the water without even getting their knees wet.

I think the white Ibis may be the best tasting wading bird, at least that is the rumor ;-) It is a Chokoloskee Chicken down in Everglades City.

Reply to
gfretwell

We always have a pair of sandhills living on/near our 10 acre property. They often nest in our about two acre pond but I've never seen them forage in/near it. They do eat critters, I've seen them dig out moles.

A neighbor built an ornamental pond, stocked it with koi. The koi started disappearing, turned out to be a snake that was living in the rock work around the pond. You have snakes? Raccoons?

Reply to
dadiOH

It's a little cold for snakes to be out, and I don't think the snakes we have would swim unless their lives depended on it.

I've only seen one raccoon my entire life around here, and that was probably 20 years ago. The stock tank is 18 inches deep so I'm not sure a raccoon would be in water that deep.

Reply to
cowabunga dude

Outside of zoos, and maybe on the road, I've only seen one raccoon. He was in my big plastic garbage can. Probably more than 18" in but of course it was loose stuff, not water. I got a camera and took a picture, and I thought the flash would scare him away, but he didn't budge.

OTOH, I don't think he came back, or maybe I put the lids on better afterwards.

There was a rat** in the front yard once, too, about 25 years ago. I threw something at him and I thought even though I missed that would scare him, but he didn't leave until later.

Someone should explain to these animals that humans are in charge.

Reply to
micky

I'd guess otherwise. When fish are easy attainable, they go for them. Fish being rich in nitrogen, why wouldn't they? They certainly have the bills for it! I 've seen them haphazardly fishing on our lake -not the same way though, and only where itis extremely shallow.

Reply to
Lil

More of them are coming to Florida (central region where there are many lakes and wet prairie land). Contrary to popular belief, they do fish, but only in real shallow, fresh water. they are opportunists and they have bills that make good stabbers, so why not spear a fish once in a while? For the high protein, if nothing else. They are fun and mischievous too. biologists tend to under-rate these omnivores, who all live near water here, in north Central Florida. I have a theory that they fish in breeding season - for the extra protein and perhaps to impress a gal!

Reply to
Lil

The chemists employed by the crane community are notoriously underpaid, and so they attract those who gradated from bad schools or had bad grades at better schools. Because of their repeated mistakes, cranes have learned no to trust their statments about nutrition.

Reply to
micky

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