30 Nebraskaland • March 2026
A
sandhill crane banded and outfitted with a GPS
unit in Nebraska ended up nesting south of
the Bering Strait on the eastern trip of Russia,
wintered in New Mexico and Texas, and is likely back in
the Cornhusker State by now. The bird logged at least
11,000 miles.
It was one of five fitted with GPS tracking bands last
spring as part of a donor-funded study exploring what the
cranes do during their annual stopover in the Platte River
Valley. The study is led by the Crane Trust in partnership
with the U.S. Geological Survey and the International Crane
Foundation.
Abe Kanz, director of science with the Crane Trust, said
they want to know how far the cranes are traveling from
the Platte River to feed. The long-running answer to that
question, based on surveys done in the early 2000s, has been
less than 5 miles. Aerial surveys by the Trust and others in
recent years, however, have shown cranes going farther: One
of the tracked cranes fed 10 miles from the Platte, Kanz said.
Data collected during the study also should show how
cranes' foraging patterns shift during the season. Cranes
aren't the only birds eating leftover grain — primarily corn —
in fields in the valley. Canada geese also feed on corn, as do
snow geese, which arrive before the cranes and have become
more abundant on the Platte as their migration patterns
have shifted to the west. While most cranes only stop in
Nebraska in the spring, more have been spending the fall and
all or part of the winter on the river in recent years: The Trust
counted an estimated 31,000 cranes in mid-December.
"Is that something that's happening — depleting resources
near the river? That could also contribute to needing to
travel farther," Kanz said.
Prior Crane Trust surveys have also shown the area
used by cranes in the spring has shifted east, with more
birds roosting on the Platte between U.S. Highway 34 and
Chapman, including a record number last year.
While the five birds were banded between Wood River and
Grand Island last spring, two roosted and fed east Highway
Crane
Tracking
Story and photos by Eric Fowler
