Sandhill cranes fascinate bird lovers and draw crowds in Colorado each spring. Here鈥檚 why

In The NoCo

Sandhill cranes fascinate bird lovers and draw crowds in Colorado each spring. Here鈥檚 why

By In The NoCo,

Published March 4, 2025 at 5:40 AM MST

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Two sandhill cranes soar side by side against a backdrop of the clear blue sky. — The annual Monte Vista Crane Festival celebrates the migration of the sandhill crane every spring. This year the festival is March 7 - 9.

Crowds of sandhill crane admirers gather in Southern Colorado each spring to watch these birds 鈥� which have recovered after nearly being wiped out a century ago.

The birds鈥� admirers are fascinated by the cranes鈥� calls, their mating behaviors, and the fact that the species has existed for 2.5 million years.

is a writer and ornithologist who has also found inspiration from the sandhill cranes. He is the keynote speaker at this year鈥檚 , in the San Luis Valley, which starts this Friday. Scott talked with Erin O鈥橳oole about the role these birds play in our imagination, and why he has found them so inspiring.

Thank you to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for letting us share recordings from their sandhill crane audio archive.

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In The NoCo

KUNC's In The NoCo is a daily slice of stories, news, people and issues. It's a window to the communities along the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The show brings context and insight to the stories of the day, often elevating unheard voices in the process. And because life in Northern Colorado is a balance of work and play, we celebrate the lighter side of things here, too.

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Ariel Lavery

Ariel Lavery grew up in Louisville, Colorado and has returned to the Front Range after spending over 25 years moving around the country. She co-created the podcast Middle of Everywhere for WKMS, Murray State University鈥檚 NPR member station, and won Public Media Journalism awards in every season she produced for Middle of Everywhere. Her most recent series project is "The Burn Scar", published with The Modern West podcast. In it, she chronicles two years of her family鈥檚 financial and emotional struggle following the loss of her childhood home in the Marshall Fire.

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Erin O'Toole

As the host of KUNC鈥檚 new program and podcast In the NoCo, I work closely with our producers and reporters to bring context and diverse perspectives to the important issues of the day. Northern Colorado is such a diverse and growing region, brimming with history, culture, music, education, civic engagement, and amazing outdoor recreation. I love finding the stories and voices that reflect what makes NoCo such an extraordinary place to live.

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Brad Turner

Brad Turner is an executive producer in KUNC's newsroom. He manages the podcast team that makes In The NoCo, which also airs weekdays in Morning Edition and All Things Considered. His work as a podcaster and journalist has appeared on NPR's Weekend Edition, NPR Music, the PBS 暗黑爆料hour, Colorado Public Radio, MTV Online, the Denver Post, Boulder's Daily Camera, and the Longmont Times-Call.

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