There is an unreasonable joy to be had from the observation of small birds going about their bright, oblivious business.

~Grant Hutchison

Well, sandhill cranes aren’t really small birds. In fact, they rank as North America’s second tallest bird at between 3 to 5 feet (depending on the subspecies) falling just short of the slightly taller whooping crane. But what I watched this week was a very young sandhill crane (some are saying it is only a few days old) that was probably only about 7 to 8 inches tall. Sandhill crane babies are called colts because someone thought their long strong legs looked like those of a young horse. They are precocial young which means they hatch covered in downy feathers with eyes open and able to walk within just a few hours. Soon they are trailing after their parents as they probe for small insects to feed them. They grow quickly, up to an inch per day. But this is an extremely vulnerable time for a colt especially in a place like Yellowstone with so many predators. A colt won’t be able to fly for 2 to 3 months so they are reliant on their parents for protection. In the past, I watched an adult sandhill defending a colt from a coyote by going at the canid with wings flared and jumping at it until the confused mammal gave up and left the scene.

But on this morning, I watched this family as they walked along near a wetland marsh looking for food with the youngster moving between parents to get a small morsel of whatever it was they were finding in the soft soil. The whole scene was idyllic – early morning light with a family of majestic birds going about their lives with a group of well-behaved visitors along the road taking it all in. Here are a couple of clips of these birds having breakfast.

–The parent birds are probing the soil for invertebrates to feed their hungry colt

–This close up shows just how small this colt is – an adult sandhill crane’s bill is about 6 inches long

Here’s hoping this little guy gets all the food it needs and grows up to be one of our most regal birds.