Hooded Crane - Idaho

A Hooded Crane (Grus monacha) was discovered near Carey Lake WMA, Idaho, on 25 April by Jean Seymour and Poo Wright-Pulliam.  There are no wild records of this species in the ABA Area.  On its breeding areas in southeast Russia and northern China, Hooded Cranes occupy isolated bogs and high elevation forest wetlands, making it more secure than other rare endemic eastern Asian cranes.  They winter primarily in Japan, with some in South Korea, and central and eastern China.  Eighty percent of the entire world population of 10,000 birds is artificially fed at Izumi, on the island of Kyushu, Japan, during the winter.  A captive breeding program in the world zoo community has about 100+ individuals but there have been no releases into the wild (HBW, Volume 3).  The world population is the highest it has been since the 1920s since the artificial feeding program begun in 1952.  This species is held in high regard in  Japan, and in South Korea  it was named as a National Monument in 1972.