Captive breeding programs have boosted their numbers, and successful reintroduction efforts have raised the number of wild birds to several hundred. The massive whooping crane management effort ...

A fossil from the Miocene Epoch, some ten million years ago, was found to be structurally the same as the modern sandhill crane. Today, these large birds are found predominately in North America.

Arrivals and departures are staggered over several weeks, but at peak stopover, it's one of the great sights of natural America.

"A crane almost acting like a zombie, or like a bird in general, acting kind of zombie-ish, not able to walk correctly or hold its head up correctly," Ostrom said. Officials have a plan to swoop ...