Common crane migration Grus grus
Press ▶ to play the year. Glow: GBIF records per month, adjusted for observer effort. Lines: tracked individuals (Movebank).
| Scientific name | Grus grus |
|---|---|
| Wingspan | 222 cm |
| IUCN status | Least concern |
| Records mapped | 1,670,367 (GBIF) |
| GPS / geolocator tracks | 3 birds (Movebank) |
Facts from Wikidata Q4764 (CC0).
When does the common crane arrive in the UK?
Only 8,471 UK records in the GBIF data used here, too few to say when it arrives.
Migration in the data
1,670,367 GBIF records (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 licences only) are mapped here, in 1.41° grid cells, month by month.
In Europe and Africa, the centre of the records (adjusted for observer effort) is furthest north in May (about 59°N) and furthest south in January (about 45°N).
Month by month: centre of records in Europe and Africa
| Month | Centre (latitude) | South of the Equator |
|---|---|---|
| January | 45°N | 0% |
| February | 48°N | 0% |
| March | 52°N | 0% |
| April | 58°N | 0% |
| May | 59°N | 0% |
| June | 59°N | 0% |
| July | 59°N | 0% |
| August | 59°N | 0% |
| September | 58°N | 0% |
| October | 50°N | 0% |
| November | 46°N | 0% |
| December | 45°N | 0% |
Tracked birds
- “N_Kirzin_KN6483”: 2 Feb 2021 – 2 Feb 2022, between 56°N and 23°N. Dataset: Yanco SW, Oliver RY, Iannarilli F, Carlson BS, Heine G, Mueller U, Richter N, Vorneweg B, Andryushchenko Y, Batbayar N, et al. 2024. Migratory birds modulate niche tradeoffs in rhythm with seasons and life history. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2316827121 https://doi.org/10.5441/001/1.593 (CC BY 4.0)
- “RZ_A339501_KN5166”: 4 Jan 2019 – 4 Jan 2020, between 57°N and 33°N. Dataset: Yanco SW, Oliver RY, Iannarilli F, Carlson BS, Heine G, Mueller U, Richter N, Vorneweg B, Andryushchenko Y, Batbayar N, et al. 2024. Migratory birds modulate niche tradeoffs in rhythm with seasons and life history. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2316827121 https://doi.org/10.5441/001/1.593 (CC BY 4.0)
- “U_Lava_KN6465”: 16 Sep 2019 – 14 Sep 2020, between 55°N and 32°N. Dataset: Yanco SW, Oliver RY, Iannarilli F, Carlson BS, Heine G, Mueller U, Richter N, Vorneweg B, Andryushchenko Y, Batbayar N, et al. 2024. Migratory birds modulate niche tradeoffs in rhythm with seasons and life history. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2316827121 https://doi.org/10.5441/001/1.593 (CC BY 4.0)
About the common crane
The common crane, also known as the Eurasian crane, is a bird of the family Gruidae, the cranes. A medium-sized species, it is the only crane commonly found in Europe besides the demoiselle crane and the Siberian crane that only are regular in the far eastern part of the continent. …
From the Wikipedia article “Common crane” (revision 1378429580), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Sources
GBIF occurrence records, licence CC0 1.0 or CC BY 4.0 only, observations only (no specimens), filtered with: taxonKey=2474950&license=CC0_1_0&license=CC_BY_4_0&occurrenceStatus=PRESENT&hasGeospatialIssue=false&basisOfRecord=HUMAN_OBSERVATION&basisOfRecord=MACHINE_OBSERVATION&basisOfRecord=OBSERVATION. Monthly queries: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec. GBIF.org (22 October 2026) occurrence data accessed via the GBIF API; a GBIF download DOI is still to be added. Contributing datasets.