Siberian Crane Leucogeranus leucogeranus 白鶴
Category I. Accidental.
IDENTIFICATION
Dec. 2016, Michelle and Peter Wong.
140 cm. Adult at rest is all-white apart from reddish face, bill base and legs.
Dec. 2016, Michelle and Peter Wong.
Juveniles are extensively ginger on the head, neck, upperparts and primary coverts.
Jan. 2017, Kinni Ho.
In flight all birds show black primaries and upperwing lesser coverts.
VOCALISATIONS
The adult was recorded giving a gentle and fairly high-pitched rolling call in flight. Vocalisations of this species are in general higher-pitched than other cranes in the region.
DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE
Both records occurred in the freshwater and brackish ponds of Mai Po NR.
OCCURRENCE
2002: a juvenile at Mai Po NR during 11-12 December (Wen and Cheung 2007).
2016: an adult and a juvenile at Mai Po NR during 2-3 December; the adult remained until 1 April 2017.
RANGE & SYSTEMATICS
Monotypic. The only viable breeding population is in east central Siberia, while the only regular wintering area lies along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, China, mainly at Poyang Lake. Has also been recorded in Japan and Taiwan (Brazil 2018, Ding et al. 2020).
CONSERVATION STATUS
IUCN: CRITICALLY ENDANGERED. Population trend decreasing; considered likely to decline extremely rapidly over the next three generations due to development of dams that may affect its main wintering area.
Brazil, M. (2018). Birds of Japan. Helm, London.
Ding, T. S., C. S. Juan, R. S. Lin, Y. J. Tsai, J. L. Wu, J. Wu and Y. H. Yang (2020). The 2020 CWBF Checklist of the Birds of Taiwan. Bird Record Committee, Chinese Wild Bird Federation, Taipei. Downloaded at: https://www.bird.org.tw/report/2020/english
Wen, X. J. and M. C. Cheung (2007) Siberian Crane Grus leucogeranus at Mai Po. The First Hong Kong Record. Hong Kong Bird Report 2001-02: 171-173.
