W HOOPING C RANE L IFE C YCLE By Marlena B

H ATCHING Inside the egg, the baby first breaks the air cell to breathe. Next, it pecks a small, star-shaped whole called the star pip. After resting a bit, the chick continues working on the star pip until it is about the size of a dime. Then, it pecks at the shell and turns in a complete circle to form a seam around the egg. Finally, it kicks free.

T EACHING A C HICK The chick learns what it needs to know from it’s parents. To teach it how to drink, a parent whooping crane will dip it’s beak in water and let the water drip down. The chick will become curious and peck at the water, eventually catching some in it’s beak. A similar method is used with food. Chicks learn to swim within a day or two, and it keep’s it’s parents very busy.

G ROWING Chicks grow very fast. They eat a lot and soon begin to grow brown feathers. Then, they learn to preen, or clean their feathers. To do this they take some of the oil that is contained at the tips of their feathers clean themselves with it.

F LEDGING At about ten weeks, whoopers take their first short flight. This is called fledging. They need to learn to fly soon so that they can be ready to fly the long distance to the south for winter.

M IGRATING When the time comes for the birds to migrate, the family flies together. Along the way, they must find safe, flat, swampy areas to land. These are scars, so this is sometimes a challenge, and the birds settle for flat farmland.

O N T HEIR O WN On the flight back up north, the baby whooper is on it’s own. It now has white body feathers, black wing-tip feathers and brown head feathers. It may find some friends along the way. But when it returns home, it is on it’s own to survive in the wild.