Sandhill Crane parents and chick

The Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis) is a large crane of North America and extreme north-eastern Siberia. The common name of the species references habitat like that of the Platte River on the edge of the Nebraskan Sandhills where the cranes stop-over during migration. 

The Sandhill Crane has one of the longest fossil histories of any extant bird. The oldest unequivocal Sandhill Crane fossil is 2.5 million years old, over one and a half times older than the earliest remains of most living species of birds.

(Photo by Photomatt28)

(via theanimalblog)