‘They are dinosaurs’: Tahoe sees return of giant birds
For centuries, there was a familiar spring and summer element in the Sierra Nevada skies: hundreds of enormous white birds soaring over the lakes and mountains. On land, their courtship displays were notable from afar as they leaped, twirled and flapped their elegant black-tipped wings in complicated shows to find a lifelong mate. With a wingspan of around 7 feet and an average height of 5 feet, sandhill cranes were once easy to spot around Lake Tahoe, even from a distance. Due to overhunting and habitat loss, there were only three or four breeding pairs throughout the entire state by 1944, despite once likely numbering in the hundreds of thousands. However, the state of California didn’t grant the birds “fully protected” status until 1970.