Behaviour This species is fully migratory, although isolated breeding populations east and south of the Black Sea may be resident or only undertake local movements (Snow and Perrins 1998). It usually migrates on a narrow front, utilising two major migration routes (south-west, and south to south-east passages across Europe) and uses regular staging areas (Snow and Perrins 1998). Family groups and non-breeding birds begin to migrate in July, but the majority of the species migrate in early September, arriving in African wintering grounds during October. The species returns to its breeding areas in March (Vegvari 2002), where breeding begins in late April or early May, occasionally up to three weeks earlier in southern areas (Snow and Perrins 1998). It is gregarious for much of the year, migrating in flocks of between 10-50 to 400 birds (Africa) and congregating in groups of few to 1,000 birds in the non-breeding season (Cramp and Simmons 1980, Urban et al. 1986), exceptionally it gathers in flocks of up to 4,000 during the moulting period (Cramp and Simmons 1980). Whilst breeding, pairs are solitary with large nesting territories, although immature and unmated birds may remain in groups of 6-10 individuals (Cramp and Simmons 1980). Every two years adults undergo a complete moulting period, after breeding but before leaving for wintering grounds, throughout which they are flightless for around six weeks (Urban et al. 1986). This species is diurnal, feeding during the day and roosting during the night on the ground or in water in large numbers (the same roost is often used every night, and sometimes every year) (Cramp and Simmons 1980, Urban et al. 1986). Habitat Breeding During the breeding season this species utilises a wide variety of shallow wetlands, including high altitude, treeless moors or bogs (where the main vegetation is Sphagnum moss or Ericaceae) usually with some standing water, and swampy forest clearings, reedy marshes and rice paddies (Cramp and Simmons 1980). The species requires inaccessible ground nesting-sites, so is commonly associated with quaking bogs and other impassable mires, especially in the vicinity of Alnus carr woodland or seasonally flooded riverine forest (Cramp and Simmons 1980). In Central Asia the species may use drier forested areas (such as pine or mixed birch/pine woodland) if water is readily available (Cramp and Simmons 1980), but it generally avoids heavily wooded areas (Urban et al. 1986). The species moults in its breeding habitat after breeding, specifically requiring shallow waters or high reed cover for concealment during this vulnerable flightless period (Cramp and Simmons 1980). Non-breeding The non-breeding wintering and migration habitats of the species include floodland, swampy meadows, shallow sheltered bays, rice paddies (Cramp and Simmons 1980), pastures and savannah-like areas (such as open holm oak woodlands in the Iberian Peninsula) (Meine and Archibald 1996). The species may also be found roosting on mudflats or sandbanks along rivers, lakes and reservoirs during this season (Urban et al. 1986, Meine and Archibald 1996) and undertake flights of up to 20 km (Cramp and Simmons 1980) to forage in agricultural fields (Meine and Archibald 1996, Vegvari 2002) (due to human encroachment and destruction of its preferred habitats) (Cramp and Simmons 1980). Diet The species is omnivorous in both breeding and non-breeding seasons, the plant component of its diet consisting of grass roots and shoots, rhizomes, tubers (e.g. potatoes), the leaves of crops and wild herbs (e.g. brassicas, clover, nettle, chickweed), pondweed, the berries of Empetrum and Vaccinium, cereal grain (e.g. wheat, barley, oats, rye, maize, rice), peas, olives, acorns, cedarnuts, groundnuts Arachis, and the pods of Cajanus (Cramp and Simmons 1980, Urban et al. 1986). Animal matter in this species' diet includes adult (beetles, flies) and larval (Lepidoptera) insects, snails, earthworms, millipedes, spiders, woodlice, frogs, slow-worms, lizards, snakes, small mammals (rodents and shrews), fish and occasionally the eggs and young of small birds (Cramp and Simmons 1980, Urban et al. 1986). Breeding site The nest is a mound of wetland vegetation (which may be re-used from year to year), generally placed in or near water in inaccessible undisturbed bog, heath, marsh, mire (Cramp and Simmons 1980, Urban et al. 1986), or sedge meadow (Malik and Prange 1995). Management information The removal of willow bushes, reeds and bog grass from areas in the Kremmener Luch nature reserve, central Germany, has been successful in providing suitable roosting sites with wide panoramic views which have attracted the species to the area (Malik and Prange 1995). The vegetation was removed during the winter months: willow bushes being cut off and poisoned with arboricid, bog grass being burnt down and reeds being mechanically cut (Malik and Prange 1995). Other management efforts in western Europe include the burial or relocation of utility lines, and programs to encourage the planting of lure crops and the use of waste grain for diversionary feeding (away from agricultural crops) (Meine and Archibald 1996).

There are two subspecies with the Transcaucasian G. g. archibaldi (Ilyashenko et al. 2008) recognised as distinct owing to absence of red on hindcrown, however other proposed subspecies (eastern lilfordi and the Tibetan korelovi) are not yet recognised.

The species' distribution extends from the forest-tundra zone in the north to the sub-tropical zone in the south. The breeding range extends across Eurasia from northern and western Europe to eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East and north-eastern China, as well as between northern Europe and Asia to Middle Europe, and the steppe zones of south-eastern Europe and Asia.

The west European population has the highest breeding density in the northern and central parts of Europe, but some countries such as Denmark, Czechia, Netherlands, Belgium, France and Great Britain have small recovering and now slowly increasing breeding populations (Prange 2016). Birds also breed in Finland and in the eastern parts of the Baltic countries, in European Russia, in Belarus, and Ukraine, as well as in smaller breeding areas in northwestern Kazakhstan, but the species is extinct as a breeding bird in the Balkan countries. East of the Ural Mountains breeding grounds are located in West Siberia as well as in North and Central Kazakhstan, and east through central and eastern Siberia, northern Mongolia, and northern China.

The remaining breeding populations are found at high altitude and appear to have shorter migrations than the those outlined above. The breeding grounds of subspecies G. g. archibaldi are located in the Anatolia and Armenia Uplands. They are restricted to Central and East Türkiye and the border area of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and northern Iran. This subspecies is probably close to being resident; cranes have insignificant vertical migrations or regional movements, spending the winter mainly in south Türkiye in the border with Syria and Iraq, smaller part winter in Iraq. The remaining birds are those breeding in high mountain regions at the border between the Eastern and Central Tien-Shan (Xinjiang–Uyghur Autonomous Region) and in frontier regions of three countries—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and China (Ilyashenko 2011, Ma et al. 2011), which migrate altitudinally to winter in the Xinjiang–Uyghur Autonomous Region in Muzat River Valley in foothills of Eastern Tian-Shan (Li et al. 2020).

The West European flyway is used by cranes from northern Europe across the Baltic Sea and from the eastern Europe (Poland and partly from Baltic countries), through Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, to the wintering grounds in France (up to 160,000), Spain (up to 266,000), Portugal (near 8,000) and Morocco (1,000‒1,300) (Prange and Ilyashenko 2019). A rapidly increasing number are spending the winter in north Germany (up to 30,000 birds recently), north France (up to 20,000 birds) (Prange and Ilyashenko 2019), in Poland (several hundred) (Nowald and Broniarek 2014) and Bulgaria (up to 20 individuals) (Nankinov 2009). Cranes breeding further east in the Baltic, Finland and western Russia largely migrate along the Baltic-Hungarian flyways, in some cases performing loop migrations. The latter flyway goes from the northwestern part of Europe via Estonia to the south through Slovakia and Hungary. After the stopover in Hungary, this route divides into several branches running to the south-west and south. The southwestern course passes through the Balkan countries, goes to southern tip of Italy (Mingozzi et al. 2013), Tunisia, Libya, and Algeria  (Prange, Ilyashenko, 2019). Some cranes from Baltic-Hungarian flyway also reach Lake Tana in Ethiopia (Ojaste et al. 2020). In the last few decades far fewer are crossing the Mediterranean and many now winter in southeastern France in the Camargue (c. 30,000 birds), northern Italy (several thousand) (A. Salvi in litt. 2024), outside the big traditional migration routes of cranes (Salvi 2016, Nowald in prep .). Cranes also recently started to winter in Hungary (Bende 2023).

Birds from northwestern Kazakhstan, east Ukraine and Belarus use the East European flyway (Redchuk et al. 2015) to the wintering grounds in Türkiye, Israel and Ethiopia. Those from central and eastern European Russia and Western Kazakhstan can also fly over the Caucasus Mountains through Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan to wintering grounds located in Iran and Iraq, as well as in Israel, Iran and Ethiopia. Those breeding further east, in West Siberia and Central Asia may follow a similar route but most use the Central Asian Flyway east of the Caspian Sea through Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan to the wintering grounds in eastern Iran and western and central India. The main wintering grounds are in Gujarat Province. Since the early 2000s, some of the migrating flocks began staying for winter in the Amudaria River Valley on the border between Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan (Prange and Ilyashenko 2019).

Israel has important migratory and wintering sites. Hula Valley may be a stopover and wintering site for cranes of both Eastern European and European Russia populations coming from northwest, north, and northeast, though the actual numbers and their exact origin are not known yet (Pekarsky et al. 2015). An estimated 60,000‒80,000 migrating cranes use staging and wintering areas in Israel, including a growing wintering population of 35,000‒42,000 cranes at Hula Valley and some 5,000‒10,000 spread around other sites further south (Shanni et al. 2012).

Conservation Actions Underway
Bern Convention Appendix II. EU Birds Directive Annex I. CMS Appendix II. The following information refers to the species's European range only: The species is legally protected across all of its European range, although stronger enforcement is needed in many areas. The European Crane Working Group (ECWG) has coordinated conservation activities including research, monitoring, colour banding, habitat protection, education, and recommended changes in agricultural policy, since the mid-1980s. Some breeding areas are within protected areas in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Spain and Germany. Intensive habitat management in western Europe, including the creation and restoration of wetlands, agreements with private land owners to protect key resting and wintering habitats, clearing of dense vegetation from roosting areas, development of habitat management plans for protected areas, burial or relocation of utility lines, programs to encourage planting of lure crops and use of waste grain for diversionary feeding; and compensation programs for farmers suffering crop damage have resulted in breeding pairs resettling former breeding habitats. Breeding populations have been most closely monitored in Scandinavia, the Baltic nations, Poland, and Germany and in recent years, surveys have been conducted regularly at key staging and wintering areas in Russia, Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, Hungary, Sweden and Estonia. Intensive research in Europe has focused on demographics, life history, feeding and wintering behaviour, and habitat and conservation needs (Meine and Archibald 1996). Reintroduction of the species to the southwest U.K. began in 2010 with released birds establishing territories and nests (The Great Crane Project 2014).

Conservation Actions Proposed
The following information refers to the species's European range only: Legal protection of wetlands and other habitats in the species's breeding grounds, along its migratory routes, and in its wintering grounds should be strengthened. Cooperative international conservation programmes involving countries along the main migratory routes should be established and international research expanded. Protected areas at important breeding, staging, resting, and wintering areas should be established or expanded and enforcement and management of existing protected areas strengthened. Other measures include the continuation of research and censusing, addressing crop degradation problems, education and captive propagation and release (Meine and Archibald 1996).