Gallery: A Sandhill Crane’s Fall Colors

From the Autumn 2021 issue of Living Bird magazine. Subscribe now.

Photographer Steve Jessmore went out to shoot the vibrant fall foliage reflecting off Wildwing Lake in Milford, Michigan, when he happened upon this Sandhill Crane. The bird was one of a pair of cranes foraging on the edge of the lake on a serene late-October morning. The crimson crown on a Sandhill Crane is an unfeathered patch of bare skin that can change in color, becoming more intensely red during bouts of aggressive or excited behavior.