An African crane with feathered wattles hanging beneath its chin.
Adults have a white neck, a gray body and bare red facial skin. Feathered skin flaps hang beneath the chin.
In Ethiopia’s southeastern highlands, Wattled Cranes used different nest sites and plants in two wetlands within the same mountain park. A 2015–2017 field study in Bale Mountains National Park recorded nine nests over three breeding seasons. Six were on small islands surrounded by shallow water on the Sanetti Plateau; three were in the grassy Sodota wetland.
At Sanetti, nearby Koeleria grasses made up about 66% of nest material on average, while Luzula accounted for about 76% at Sodota. In both places, cranes gathered material close to the nest. Clutch initiation was recorded from August through October. Nests were recorded at 3,502–4,034 m above sea level. The nine nests show how breeding pairs used the landforms and vegetation of two high-altitude wetlands.
IUCN Red List · Vulnerable (VU) · Global, species-level assessment
The Wattled Crane was classified as Vulnerable (VU) in the 2018 global IUCN Red List assessment, which recorded a decreasing population trend and continuing threats. Its assessment history gives an estimate of 6,000–6,300 mature individuals, based on underlying total-population information from 2007. A 2026 field study in Ethiopia found nine nests across high-altitude islands and wetlands during 2015–2017. That local nest study documents breeding habitat; it is not a new global status or population assessment.