Whooping Crane

You are so very lucky! It's an amazing species, so tormented and rare...

Gatorfellows, hope you enjoy your trip down here and have fun!

sunswimmer02 I am visiting your area next week as a continuation of gathering spottings along the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail. Hope I get some luck shots :)

Well...I will weigh in and let you guys know that I work for the FWS at Aransas NWR (where the only wild flock of whoopers winters) and confirm gatorfellows and garysmith2's comments. Whooping cranes are still endangered, there're about 300 in the wild flock. It is extremely illegal to shoot one. And in fact we dont allow sandhill crane hunting south of Hwy 77 to help us prevent any mistakes. In person, if you ever see a whooper, you'll know right off it's not a sandhill. Obviously its a big white bird. They look completely different.

Black on the wing tips in photo 3 are consistent with Whooping Crane not Sandhill which has no black tips. Common Crane is only a rare visitor to western North America.

Natralist, I doubt there is any game licenses being issued for Whooping Cranes. There is an International Recovery Plan in place that includes Cananda and the United States. You can download this plan here http://www.fws.gov/refuge/Aransas/wwd/science/intl_recovery_plan.html The Migratory Bird Program alerts hunters to the possibility of Whooping Cranes in the Central Flyway http://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/CurrentBirdIssues/SandhillCranes/SandhillCraneHunters.htm

Here is the latest FWS bulletin Feb 15, 2013 about the Whooping Crane population count in the Aransas Tx area. http://www.fws.gov/nwrs/threecolumn.aspx?id=2147512080

Ha, I live right around the corner from where you spotted these guys lol.