Morphometric Variation of Sandhill Cranes from Mid-Continental North America

The authors sought to determine if subspecies of migrating and wintering sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis ) from mid-continental North America could be discriminated on the basis of three morphological characteristics used to describe the three subspecies. Mayr (1970) defined subspecies and described taxonomic differences as differences in diagnostic morphological characters. This study centered on the 500,000 sandhill cranes that migrate through the Great Plains of North America, winter primarily in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico, and are referred to as mid-continent sandhill cranes. Mid-continent sandhill cranes have been considered to represent three subspecies. G. c. canadensis , which has the smallest body size, G. c. rowani , which is intermediate; and G. c. tabida , which has the largest body size.