Christmas Shoes

Profile Picture and Leg Ring Combination Code

Black
Blue
White

What is this?

Each crane has a unique combination of 3 coloured rings on their right leg. This marking code helps to identify the crane in the wild.

Sex: Female
Date of Hatching (birthday): 25 April, 2011
Date of Release: 22 August, 2011
Tracking Tag: Radio tracking
Champion Status: Championed

Character profile:

Black Blue was one of the first batch of eggs back, and the third chick to hatch. It is part of 'A Block' at the rearing facility and has no silbings. It has a very good natured character, and is inquisitive. It is a fairly dainty bird, small for its age and is keen to keep out of any tussles. Has developed the nick name 'Christmas Shoes' on account of it having a red and green identifying markers on its legs as a chick! Black Blue had to have one of its legs splinted to try and correct a rather perculiar bowing that was occuring in early July. August: Christmas shoes has grown into quite a large crane now! She still has quite small legs for her body size and we are expecting her to have a growth spurt at any moment. She loves to spend time foraging and spends a lot of time around the decoys finding food in places we have left it for then to discover. We are pleased to say the bowing that was occuring has not got any worse and we are confident the splint worked and she will be fine now. SEPT UPDATE: Christmas is quite an odd bird who has been exhibiting some rather eccentric behaviour, but seems to be integrating well with the older birds and her group. She has exceptionally short legs so can look quite goose-like at times but is a lovely bird none-the-less!