Florida Whooping Crane

Grus americana

This magnificent bird represents the largest of the cranes, and as recently as the 1940s, there were only 17 left alive, all in zoos. The University of Florida began a captive breeding and release program, and now there are three groups in the wild, numbering somewhere upwards of 500 birds. There is a 'captive' flock in central Florida that stays year-round. They have not been taught to migrate like the other two groups. Those groups are first imprinted, while still young chicks, by humans wearing a big bird costume. They then teach the fledglings the way south, flying an ultra light, its pilot dressed in bird togs.