The bird belongs to the Gruidae family of Gruiformes order. Its scientific name is Grus nigricollis (Latin), or Black-necked crane (English).
Black-necked Crane is a large-size wading bird, with a full body-length of around 120 centimeters. The colors of the body feathers are from silver gray to approximately white, with dotted brown brims. The vertex is dark red, with sparse black filiform feathers on it. The head and two thirds of neck are black, with one white spot under each eye. The remiges are black and tan, and the tertial remiges are black, prolonged and bent to the shape of arch, with ends ramified into filaments. The rectrices are gray black. The beak is light green, and the feet are black. There are light tan feathers on the upper back of female birds.
It is the only crane species growing and breeding in tableland,inhabiting in plateaus at an elevation of 2,500 to 5,000 meters. It usually lives in swampland, lake and overflow areas, feeding on green plant roots and sprouts, as well as mollusks, insects, batrachia, fishes, etc. Every March, it leaves Yungui Plateau (located in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces), the place where it hibernates, and flies northward to the prairies and marshy terrain of Qingzang Plateau (located in Tibet and Qinghai Province), and begins to breed in late April. The nests are usually built on grass piers or mud piers in marshy terrain with higher hypsography. The average number of eggs per breed is 2, and the incubation period lasts about 31 to 33 days.
Black-necked Crane usually hibernates in Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, and breeds in Tibet, Qinghai and Gansu provinces. It has been listed in Appendix I ofInternational Trade Convention on Endangered Wild Animal and Plant Species.
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