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Range (Florida Georgia and northward)

Florida, Georgia, and northward through the Mississippi Valley to Manitoba; breeds locally throughout its range; winters in the Gulf States from Florida to Texas.

Nest, of roots, rushes, weed stalks, etc., on the ground in marshy places. Eggs, two, olive-gray, spotted and blotched with distinct and obscure cinnamon-brown markings, 3.90 x 2.40. "These birds in their habits are similar to the Whooping [Crane], but much more numerous. Their loud, modulating, sonorous croak announces their presence, and is often heard during the night as well as the day. "During courtship and the early breeding season their actions and antics at times are ludicrous in the extreme, bowing and leaping high in the air, hopping, skipping, and circling about with drooping wings and croaking whoop, an almost indescribable dance and din, in which the females (an exception to the rule) join, all working themselves up into a fever of excitement only equaled by an Indian war dance, and, like the same, it only stops when the last one is exhausted" (Goss).