OperationMigration.Org

Thirteen whooping cranes follow an ultra-light through West Jefferson County last year as they passed over Alabama Power’s Miller Steam Plant on the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River.

Twenty juvenile whooping cranes reached Franklin County, Alabama, on
December 17 on their ultralight-guided migration from Necedah
National Wildlife Refuge in central Wisconsin to Chassahowitzka and
St. Marks National Wildlife Refuges along Florida’s Gulf Coast, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

These majestic birds, the tallest in North America, left Necedah refuge on October 23, following Operation Migration’s four ultralight aircraft.

Whooping cranes were on the verge of extinction in the 1940s. Today, there are only about 500 birds in existence, 350 of them in the wild. Aside from the 77 Wisconsin-Florida birds, the only other migrating population of whooping cranes nests at the Wood Buffalo National Park in the Northwest Territories of Canada and winters at the Arkansas National Wildlife Refuge on the Texas Coast.

A non-migrating flock of approximately 30 birds lives year-round in central Florida. The remaining 150 whooping cranes are in captivity in zoos and breeding facilities around North America.

Alabama is one of the seven states the ultralight-guided migration will fly over before reaching Florida. The Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership, an international coalition of public and private groups conducting this project, is now in its ninth year, in an effort to reintroduce this endangered species in eastern North America.

“Two of our refuges in the Southeast, St. Marks and Chassahowitzka, serve as a crucial base of winter operations for these great birds,” said Cindy Dohner, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Southeast Regional Director. “I hope all Americans and all those interested in saving species for future generation can appreciate the monumental task this truly is.”

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