Cranes

13 places to see and hear cranes in the wild, in 8 countries from Sweden to Angola: when each one peaks, where to go on your own, what it costs and what you will hear. Wild animals only, no zoos.

Best time, place by place

Where to go, north to south

• Spring crane staging: Hornborgasjön and PulkenSweden · Migration · peak 25 Mar–12 AprThousands of cranes bugling in chorus — trumpeting that carries for kilometres, rising to a roar when a flock lifts; unison calls of pairs, wing noise of landing flocks, whooper swans and lapwings in the background.
• Cranes dancing on the dune heaths and bogsDenmark · Dawn chorus & song · peak 15 Mar–20 AprCrane pairs duetting and bugling across the wet dune slacks at first light, the dance's wing-flaps, curlew, golden plover and snipe drumming around them; ravens; the North Sea in Thy.
• Vejlerne: bitterns, cranes and Northern Europe's largest reedbedsDenmark · Dawn chorus & song · peak 20 Apr–5 JunBittern booming from several directions at once, spotted crake whiplashes, water rail squeals, cranes trumpeting at dawn, bearded reedlings pinging, greylag families, black terns over the lagoons; wind in 8 km of reed.
• Common cranes buglingUnited Kingdom · Wintering waterfowl · peak 1 Dec–15 MarTrumpeting bugles carrying over 2 km, unison calls from pairs, and the low rolling contact calls of a roosting group in the reeds.
• Müritz: cranes, ospreys and sea eagles in summerGermany · Dawn chorus & song · peak 20 Apr–10 Jun and 20 Sep–31 OctCrane pairs duetting at dawn from the bogs, bittern booming, osprey whistles over the lakes, eagle calls, woodlark and nightjar on the sandy heaths at dusk, marsh frogs; in autumn thousands of cranes flying into Rederangsee.
• Crane autumn staging: Rügen-Bock, Linum, Diepholz, MüritzGermany · Migration · peak 5 Oct–31 OctWaves of trumpeting families flying in at dusk, the roost's night-long murmur over shallow water, dawn's mass departure with tens of thousands calling at once; greylag and white-fronted geese in the same flights.
• Pyrenean passes: raptor, stork, pigeon & crane migrationFrance · Migration · peak 20 Aug–5 NovMostly visual, but woodpigeon flocks pass with a rush of wings, cranes bugle over the pass, and pre-dawn passerine flight calls stream through — with gunfire from the neighbouring hunting passes.
• Cranes at Lac du DerFrance · Migration · peak 20 Oct–20 Nov and 10 Feb–10 MarTens of thousands of cranes bugling as they leave the lake at first light in wave after wave, then the evening return with the sky full of trumpeting skeins.
• Wintering cranes at ArjuzanxFrance · Wintering waterfowl · peak 15 Nov–15 FebWaves of cranes dropping into the flooded roost after dark, a continuous rolling chorus that carries for kilometres over the pine plantations.
• Winter wetlands: geese, ducks & cranesItaly · Wintering waterfowl · peak 1 Dec–28 FebGoose flights at dawn, whistling wigeon rafts, cranes bugling as they pass north in late winter.
• Cranes at Laguna de GallocantaSpain · Migration · peak 1 Nov–30 Nov and 15 Feb–10 MarUp to 100,000 cranes lifting off the salt lagoon at first light in a continuous trumpeting roar that lasts half an hour, then skeins bugling over the steppe villages.
• Wintering cranes in the Extremadura dehesaSpain · Wintering waterfowl · peak 20 Nov–10 FebTens of thousands of cranes flying into the roosts at sunset in wave after wave, bugling in the acorn dehesa by day, with wintering lapwings, golden plovers and greylags.
• Okavango headwaters: the Cuito source lakes and the CuandoAngola · Nocturnal · peak 15 Jun–30 SepOne of the least-recorded soundscapes in Africa: hippos and Pel's fishing owl on the Cuito, frog choruses on peat-edged source lakes, wattled cranes over the floodplains, the miombo dawn with its cuckoos and barbets, and no engine for days.

More: every animal and kind · what is on in October