The Sandhill Crane is an uncommon to rare breeder in the CW Region. Breeding habitat includes secluded, vegetated marshes and ponds. Once common in Illinois, Sandhill Cranes more-or-less disappeared from the state in the late 1800's and were not rediscovered breeding until about 1980 when they were found nesting in northern Lake County. They have since spread into other areas in the CW Region. BCN data is too sparse to produce accurate trends for this species, but local crane counts show that this species is continuing to spread. Photo: © Eric Secker