Wattled Crane Bugeranus carunculatus

A large, grayish crane with a gleaming white neck, conspicuous wattles, and red facial skin. The immature is duller and lacks wattles, but it retains the distinctive pale neck of the adult. It requires sedge-dominated wetlands for breeding but will forage on adjacent grasslands and plains, where it digs for tubers, insects, and small vertebrates. The Wattled Crane is resident in larger wetlands, where it breeds in pairs, although flocks of up to 1,000 may gather after breeding. It is locally nomadic in smaller perennial wetlands in alpine grasslands. Although it is mostly silent, it has a distinctive, rapid, screechy “Koorok-kreek” call.