Sandhill cranes taking flight over the Platte River near Kearney, Nebraska, USA
© Diana Robinson Photography/Getty Image
Sandhill cranes fly the Platte. A rest stop for the birds
Every year, from February to April, 80 percent of North America’s sandhill crane population stops in Nebraska to eat and rest before finishing their lengthy migration to the northern reaches of Canada, Alaska, and even Siberia. Tourists flock (sorry) to towns such as Kearney, Nebraska, seen in our photo today, to watch this spectacle take place. Some half a million cranes stop to wade through the shallow braids of the North Platte River in the valley here, feasting on crop residue from the many corn and grain fields in the area.
Related Images
Pantropical spotted dolphins off the coast of Ixtapa, Mexico
Flamingos in the Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve in Bolivia
Jal Mahaal water palace at lake Man Sagar, Jaipur
Trumpeter swans at Kelly Warm Springs, near Kelly, Wyoming
Humpback whales off the coast of Massachusetts
Whooping cranes taking off during spring migration in South Dakota
Starlings at sunset in Blackpool, England
A heron perches on a piling at the Salton Sea in California, USA
Bing Today Images
The hill of Mam Tor, Derbyshire, England
Feb 22, 2026
Gateway Arch and St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Feb 22, 2025
Glass octopus in the Atlantic Ocean off Cabo Verde
Feb 22, 2023
Two Bactrian camels in Kazakhstan for Twosday
Feb 22, 2022
The Cobb breakwater, Lyme Regis, Dorset, England
Feb 22, 2021
