BLUE CRANE

A symbol of pride and vulnerability

- TEXT DAVID ALLAN

From misty Overberg dams to the plains of the eastern Karoo, the Blue Crane is woven into South Africa's soul. Its renewed role in BirdLife South Africa's logo brings the nation's bird back into the heart of conservation.

The Blue Crane is South Africa's national bird and we are blessed to boast such a graceful avian ambassador. The Southern African Ornithological Society also had this bird as its symbol before taking on a new identity as BirdLife South Africa under the Arctic Tern logo of BirdLife International. The return of the Blue Crane to the organisation's logo is to be welcomed and is particularly fitting as the species is virtually endemic to South Africa.

Its total population size is estimated at about 51 000 birds, of which more than 99 per cent reside within South Africa's borders. There is an anomalous and highly isolated outpost, numbering fewer than 50 individuals, centred on Etosha Pan in northern Namibia. Small numbers are occasionally recorded in Swaziland and Botswana, and isolated pairs have even bred in these two countries. The species is only very rarely recorded in Lesotho, but probably bred in the lowland areas in ancestral times. There are no confirmed records from Zimbabwe. The Blue Crane has the most restricted range of any crane.

Elegance in simplicity