Birdwatch: the avian equivalent of a catwalk model, blue cranes are under threat

A worker interacts with a blue crane in an enclosure at World of Birds in Cape Town, South Africa. Today only 25,000 to 46,000 individuals remain in the wild. Photograph: Esa Alexander/Reuters

Few birds are quite as elegant as the blue crane. As I watched a pair feeding alongside a busy road in South Africa, against the rather incongruous backdrop of a herd of cows, I was struck by their sheer beauty. With a slender body, curved neck, long legs, elongated tail plumes and a subtle, dove-grey plumage, this bird really is the avian equivalent of a catwalk model.

But not all is well for the blue crane. It has the smallest global range of any of the world’s 15 crane species: apart from an isolated population in Namibia, almost all are found in South Africa, where it is celebrated as the national bird.