Sarus crane
Antigone antigone (Linnaeus, 1758)
Status not recordedbirds
The sarus crane (Antigone antigone) is a bird in the family Gruidae, subfamily Gruinae, within the order Gruiformes. It is a medium-sized, terrestrial omnivore of wetland habitats, with an adult body mass of 5.9 kg and up to 7.15 kg.
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Quick facts about the sarus crane
It lays one clutch per year of 1.95 eggs, which are incubated for 33 days, and reaches sexual maturity at 5 years. The sarus crane is partially migratory, has a geographic range of 1,865,000 km², and checklists record it in Australia.
- Weight
- 5.92 kg – 7.15 kgsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Height
- up to 1.8 msrc for Height
- Lifespan
- 26 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Omnivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- wetlandsrc for Habitat
- Egg incubation
- 32.7 dayssrc for Egg incubation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 1.95src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 4.97 yearssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 1src for Litters or clutches a year
- Lifestyle
- Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
- Migration
- Partialsrc for Migration
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
Photos of the sarus crane
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
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Where does the sarus crane live?
Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.
The sarus crane is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.
What is the sarus crane?
The sarus crane (Antigone antigone) is a large nonmigratory crane found in parts of the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and northern Australia. The tallest of the flying birds, standing at a height of up to 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in), they are a conspicuous species of open wetlands in South Asia, seasonally flooded Dipterocarpus forests in Southeast Asia, and Eucalyptus-dominated woodlands and grasslands in Australia.
The sarus crane is easily distinguished from other cranes in the region by its overall grey colour and the contrasting red head and upper neck. They forage on marshes and shallow wetlands for roots, tubers, insects, crustaceans, and small vertebrate prey. Like other cranes, they form long-lasting pair bonds and maintain territories within which they perform territorial and courtship displays that include loud trumpeting, leaps, and dance-like movements. In India, they are considered symbols of marital fidelity, believed to mate for life and pine the loss of their mates, even to the point of starving to death.
The main breeding season is during the wet season, when the pair builds an enormous nest "island," a circular platform of reeds and grasses nearly two meters in diameter and high enough to stay above the shallow water surrounding it. Increased agricultural intensity is often thought to have led to declines in sarus crane numbers, but the largest known population of Sarus cranes are in northern India's Uttar Pradesh where small-holder agriculture, favorable farmer attitudes, wet crops such as flooded paddy and the extensive network of canals has benefited the species. The stronghold of the species is in India, where it is traditionally revered and lives in agricultural lands in close proximity to humans. Elsewhere, the species has been extirpated in many parts of its former range.
From the Wikipedia article “Sarus crane” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sarus_crane&oldid=1384722958), 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 sarus crane endangered?
No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.
How is the sarus crane classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderGruiformes
- familyGruidae
- genusAntigone
- SpeciesAntigone antigone (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms Antigone australasiana, Ardea antigone, Grus antigone, Grus torquata
Other names and names in other languages (48)
- SaruskraanvoëlAfrikaans
- كركي ساروسArabic
- Индийски жеравBulgarian
- দেশি সারসBangla
- Garan AntigoneBreton
- grua sarusCatalan
- jeřáb AntigoninCzech
- SarustraneDanish
- SaruskranichGerman
- ruĝkola gruoEsperanto
- Grulla sarusSpanish
- saaruskurgEstonian
- Grus antigoneBasque
- saruskurkiFinnish
- Grue antigoneFrench
- עגור סארוסHebrew
- crvenoglavi ždralCroatian
- Antigoné-daruHungarian
- Gru antigoneItalian
- オオヅルJapanese
- 큰두루미Korean
- indinė gervėLithuanian
- Indijos gervėLithuanian
- सारस क्रौंचMarathi
- Burung Bangau KeriaMalay
- ကြိုးကြာBurmese
- सारसNepali
- SaruskraanvogelDutch
- żuraw indyjskiPolish
- سارسWestern Panjabi
- grou-sarusPortuguese
- grou-antígonaPortuguese
- Grou-indianoPortuguese
- Индийский журавльRussian
- žeriav sarusSlovak
- Sarus ždralSerbian
- sarustranaSwedish
- சாரசு கொக்குTamil
- కొంగTelugu
- นกกระเรียนไทยThai
- นกกระเรียนพันธุ์ไทยThai
- Saras turnasıTurkish
- Sarus TurnasıTurkish
- антігонаUkrainian
- Журавель індійськийUkrainian
- Sếu đầu đỏVietnamese
- 赤頸鶴Chinese
- 赤颈鹤Chinese
Relatives of the sarus crane
Other species in the same genus Antigone.
CompareSarus crane vs White-naped craneSarus crane vs KronkySarus crane vs Antigone cubensisSarus crane vs Brolga
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
What kind of animal is the sarus crane?
The sarus crane is a bird in the family Gruidae and the order Gruiformes.
How heavy is a sarus crane?
An adult Sarus crane has a body mass of 5.9 kg, with values up to 7.15 kg reported, placing it in the medium size class.
What does the sarus crane eat?
The sarus crane is an omnivore.
Which countries is the sarus crane recorded in?
Checklists record the sarus crane in Australia.
How long does a sarus crane live?
The sarus crane has a lifespan of 26 years.
How many eggs does the sarus crane lay?
The sarus crane lays 1.95 eggs per clutch and one clutch per year, with an incubation period of 33 days.
Who named the sarus crane?
The sarus crane, Antigone antigone, was named by (Linnaeus, 1758).
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
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CreatureData. (2026). Sarus crane (Antigone antigone). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/sarus-crane
“Sarus crane (Antigone antigone).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/sarus-crane.
@misc{sarus_crane_2026,
title = {Sarus crane (Antigone antigone)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/sarus-crane},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}