WINTER FORAGING HABITAT OF GREATER SANDHILL CRANES IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Abstract

In the upper Butte basin (Butte, Colusa, Glenn, and Sutter counties) of California's Sacramento Valley, wintering Greater Sandhill Cranes select unaltered harvested rice stubble most consistently for foraging. They feed in burned and flooded rice stubble for brief periods; their use of such fields decreases dramatically by January and remains low thereafter.