Whooping Crane

Listening Tips: Which Call is Which?

Dr. Bernhard Wessling explains:

Hear Whooping Cranes Calling	Hear Eurasian Cranes Calling

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"Most people never get to hear the call of Whooping Cranes. If you visit the refuge, they don't call in the daytime, or the sound is so far away you can't distinguish male and female. Even people who have heard the call have not been able to tell male from female. You can definitely hear it! The 'tak-tak-tak' you hear in between calls is the female. Listen over and over again until you can say: I have differentiated two voices in the unison call. Somebody calls a little longer, starts deeper and goes higher, and in between I hear someone else.

"Most listeners think the call of the Eurasian crane sounds clearer, more like a pure musical instrument. Whooping Cranes can sound less melodical and more like an old musical instrument with a rattle in it. The male and female whoopers in this call are more or less on the same tone height / frequency. They also use a relatively wide range of their frequency. But in the Eurasian Crane calls, the female calls much higher than the male. The female's 'tak tak tak' is the same in both species."

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