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Noble and immortal, bringer of luck – the Japanese or Red-crowned Crane, photographed in Dierenpark Amersfoort (zoo), the Netherlands

Description:

Quote: Wikipedia
“The Red-crowned Crane (Grus japonensis), also called Japanese Crane is a large east Asian crane and among the rarest cranes in the world. In some parts of its range, it is known as a symbol of luck, longevity and fidelity.

Adult Red-crowned Cranes are snow white with black to the wings (appears almost like a black tail when standing, but the real tail feathers are white), blackish to the head and neck, and a patch of red skin on the crown. This patch of skin becomes brighter red when the crane becomes angry or excited.

In the spring and summer, the migratory populations of the Red-crowned Crane breed in Siberia (eastern Russia), northeastern China and occasionally in northeastern Mongolia. Later, in the fall, they migrate in flocks to Korea and east-central China to spend the winter. In addition to the migratory populations, a resident population is found in eastern Hokkaidō in Japan. The habitats used are marshes, riverbanks, rice fields, and other wet areas."

Conservation Status
The Red-crowned crane is on the IUCN Red List of endangered animals – Status: Endangered
The estimated total population of the species is only 2,750 in the wild, including about 1,000 birds in the resident Japanese population. Several hundred Red-crowned Cranes are kept in zoos around the world." (Source: Wikipedia)

Animal Park Amersfoort – zoo collection
The Netherlands, Dierenpark Amersfoort

Technical details

Photograph made with Pentax K10D camera and
Tamron AF70-300mm Tele-macro1:2 lens
Exposure 1/125 sec, f. 13 mm
focal length 300 mm , ISO 400
Date: july 12, 2011

Edited and enhanced in Lightroom 2.0 and Photoshop 7.0 – textures added

Credits for the the used textures to:
darkwood67.deviantart.com
Orman Clark for PremiumPixels.com

Challenge Winner
Challenge Winner in Endangered Animals – in Live, Love Dream , and featured on the group’s front page! (Sept. 19, 2011)
Thank you so much to the hosts of this marvellous group, and to all who voted!

Features and Top10 placements
Featured in Welcome to the Jungle (Sept. 11 , 2011)
Featured in Outstanding ones for today – High Quality Images (Sept. 13, 2011)
Featured in The Birds (Sept. 22, 2012)
Featured in Weekly themes challenges (Oct. 17, 2011)
Featured in Pentax Ladies (Nov. 6, 2011)
Top 10 in black and white with 1 statement colour and featured in Naturally black and white (nov. 18, 2011)
Featured in Letter C – Alphabeth soup (jan. 29, 2012)
Top10 in Letter C – Alphabeth soup (Feb.4, 2011)
Featured in Wildlife wonders in White – Amazing Wildlife (July 1, 2012)
Thank you so much to the hosts of these marvellous groups and challenges

See more
See more of my birds
See more of my textured photo’s
See more of my Dierenpark Amersfoort collection

You can now also search my portfolio using
Steppeland Thematic Catalogue

Comments and feed-back always welcome. Thanks for looking :)