Sandhill Cranes at Colorado’s Monte Vista Refuge
March 25, 2025
Photographer: Ray Boren
Summary Author: Ray Boren
Biennially in early spring and autumn, thousands of North American sandhill cranes migrate through wetlands and agricultural lands in and near southern Colorado’s Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge. These large gray birds, with their distinctive red-tinted heads, decorate the sky when in flight, as in the top and middle photographs here, taken in the afternoon and during a spectacular sunset on February 26, 2025. They also throng in open fields when on the ground, as in the bottom image from the same date, in which the cranes are loafing and foraging, just before day’s end. The gangly cranes are known for boisterous cries and elegant courtship displays and dances.
During spring migration, the refuge will host 18,000 to 21,000 greater sandhill cranes (Antigone canadensis), as well as 5,000 to 6,000 lesser sandhill cranes (A. c. canadensis), according to the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service. Colorado’s high San Luis Valley (elevation: 7,800 feet or 2377.5 meters), a vast basin poised between the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the east and the San Juan Mountains to the west, provides the cranes with food sources and roosting habitat as the birds pause in a migration from their winter ranges in New Mexico and northern Mexico toward summer breeding grounds in marshes, meadows and prairies in the northern United States and Canada. On the second weekend of each March the community of Monte Vista celebrates the migration, hosting visitors for speeches and special tours during the annual Monte Vista Crane Festival.
The refuge is part of the San Luis Valley National Wildlife Refuge Complex, which also includes nearby Alamosa National Wildlife Refuge and, farther north, the Baca National Wildlife Refuge. The areas are set aside and managed for migratory birds and native wildlife, including elk herds. The basin’s northeast corner also is the site of Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, which features the tallest sand dunes in North America.
Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge, Colorado Coordinates: 37.4881818, -106.0931602
Related Links:
Snow Geese at Gunnison Bend
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
Colorado’s Garden of the Gods