CreatureData

Black-necked crane

Grus nigricollis Przevalski, 1876

NTNear Threatenedbirds

The black-necked crane (Grus nigricollis) is a species in the family Gruidae, order Gruiformes. Recorded adults weigh about 6 kg and live up to 30 years. Its IUCN Red List status is Near Threatened.

Black-necked crane (Grus nigricollis)
Photo: Sumeetmoghe · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the black-necked crane

Weight
6 kgsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Wingspan
1.8 m – 2 msrc for Wingspan
Lifespan
30 yearssrc for Lifespan
Diet
Omnivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
wetlandsrc for Habitat
Egg incubation
61 dayssrc for Egg incubation
Young per litter or clutch
2src for Young per litter or clutch
Age at maturity
2.5 yearssrc for Age at maturity
Litters or clutches a year
1src for Litters or clutches a year
Lifestyle
Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Migratorysrc for Migration
Conservation status
Near Threatened (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
Not recorded

How big is the black-necked crane?

BLACK-NECKED CRANE · WINGSPAN 2 MADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 2 m, the recorded maximum wingspan of the black-necked crane is about 1.2 times the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Where does the black-necked crane live?

Not recorded

What is the black-necked crane?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The black-necked crane (Grus nigricollis) is a medium-sized crane in Asia that breeds on the Tibetan Plateau and remote parts of India and Bhutan. It is 139 cm (55 in) long with a 235 cm (7.71 ft) wingspan, and it weighs 5.5 kg (12 lb). It is whitish-gray, with a black head, red crown patch, black upper neck and legs, and white patch to the rear of the eye. It has black primaries and secondaries. Both sexes are similar. Some populations are known to make seasonal movements. It is revered in Buddhist traditions and culturally protected across much of its range. A festival in Bhutan celebrates the bird while the Indian union territory of Ladakh has designated it as the state bird.

From the Wikipedia article “Black-necked crane” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Black-necked_crane&oldid=1370302601), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the black-necked crane endangered?

The black-necked crane is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List: it is close to qualifying as threatened.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Near Threatened species. What the categories mean.

How is the black-necked crane classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderGruiformes
  5. familyGruidae
  6. genusGrus
  7. SpeciesGrus nigricollis Przevalski, 1876
Other names and names in other languages (40)
  • Tibetan craneEnglish
  • Tibetan craneEnglish
  • كركي أسود العنقArabic
  • Черноврат жеравBulgarian
  • কালোঘাড় সারসBangla
  • Garan gouzoug duBreton
  • grua collnegraCatalan
  • jeřáb černokrkýCzech
  • garan gyddfdduWelsh
  • Sorthalset TraneDanish
  • SchwarzhalskranichGerman
  • ཁྲུང་ཁྲུང་དཀར་མོ།Dzongkha
  • nigrakola gruoEsperanto
  • Nigrokola gruoEsperanto
  • Grulla cuellinegraSpanish
  • mägikurgEstonian
  • mustakaulakurkiFinnish
  • Grue à cou noirFrench
  • Grús píbdhubhIrish
  • עגור שחור-צווארHebrew
  • kormosfejű daruHungarian
  • Gru colloneroItalian
  • オグロヅルJapanese
  • 검은꼬리두루미Korean
  • juodakaklė gervėLithuanian
  • melnkakla dzērveLatvian
  • ZwarthalskraanvogelDutch
  • svarthalstraneNorwegian
  • żuraw czarnoszyiPolish
  • Gru-de-pescoço-negroPortuguese
  • grou-de-pescoço-pretoPortuguese
  • Черношейный журавльRussian
  • žeriav čiernokrkýSlovak
  • Crnovrati ždralSerbian
  • svarthalsad tranaSwedish
  • கறுப்பு கழுத்துக் கொக்குTamil
  • Kara Boyunlu TurnaTurkish
  • журавель чорношиїйUkrainian
  • 黑頸鶴Chinese
  • 黑颈鹤Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the black-necked crane

Other species in the same genus Grus.

CompareBlack-necked crane vs Common craneBlack-necked crane vs Red-crowned craneBlack-necked crane vs Whooping craneBlack-necked crane vs Hooded crane

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the black-necked crane?

An adult black-necked crane weighs 6 kg and has a wingspan of 1.8 m – 2 m, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Is the black-necked crane endangered?

The black-necked crane is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is close to qualifying as threatened.

How long does the black-necked crane live?

The black-necked crane has a recorded lifespan of 30 years.

What kind of animal is the black-necked crane?

The black-necked crane (Grus nigricollis) belongs to the family Gruidae in the order Gruiformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Black-necked crane (Grus nigricollis). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-necked-crane

MLA

“Black-necked crane (Grus nigricollis).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-necked-crane.

BibTeX
@misc{black_necked_crane_2026,
  title = {Black-necked crane (Grus nigricollis)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-necked-crane},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}