Query from locals on Sandhill Cranes in Key Biscayne please (3 Viewers)

[martinboer]

Greetings,

A few years ago I had the pleasure to visit Key Biscayne and I saw four Sandhill Cranes in Crandon Park. They were remarkable and distinctive birds and a welcome lifer for me.

But when eBird recently updated their methodology they removed the crane from my world life list as an "escapee." I thought they could be found across the state, so I was surprised to see this "lifer" relegated to escapee status.

Have others experienced something similar? Did I perhaps make a mistake in my observation or are these indeed escaped/released birds? (I now read somewhere that there did used to be a zoo nearby, which now makes me kind of suspicious...)

Thank you in advance for any insights.

Best wishes,
Martin
Chevy Chase, MD

 

[etudiant]

Peculiar, Sibley has the bird as a year round resident of Florida north of Miami, although otherwise rare on the East coast.
The wintering grounds are largely in Texas and Mexico, while summers are mostly in Canada and Alaska.

 

[martinboer]

Peculiar, Sibley has the bird as a year round resident of Florida north of Miami, although otherwise rare on the East coast.
The wintering grounds are largely in Texas and Mexico, while summers are mostly in Canada and Alaska.

That's much appreciated. I was wondering if for Florida-based eBird users it was also listed as an escapee. Fortunately there are currently a pair of cranes being sighted across Maryland, so I'm going to try and find those to recover my "lifer" sighting. Thanks again.

 

[P T Treloar]

Grus canadensis pratensis, Florida Sandhill Crane. Resident in southern Georgia from the Okefenokee Swamp (Charlton and Ware counties) to Florida , and in Florida mostly from Alachua and Putnam counties south to the Everglades. Ref-Cranes of the World, Johnsgard 1983. Grus canadensis tabida Greater Sandhill Crane. Migratory with the Great Lakes population wintering in Florida. Cranes of the World, Johnsgard 1983.