2 Adult Common Crane (Biebrza, Poland, 27 April 2014).

This close- up portrait shows all the features of adult plumage perfectly – note the black head and neck with broad white stripe flaring down from behind the eye and meeting on the hindneck, red hindcrown, pale bluish- grey lower neck, upperparts and underparts, and blackish, messy ‘bustle’ formed by elongated tertials. Many individuals are stained rusty- brown on the back during the breeding season. Although there is nothing to measure this bird’s size against, it is clearly very large and imposing; Common Cranes dwarf Grey Herons, for example, with males averaging slightly larger than females.