Great Crested Crane

For the second time since we've been in Uganda I saw the Great Crested Crane. I was in the bus coming back from teaching at Rubaga (Kampala) and there were two of them in the UMU farm field near the cows. It was pretty cool. It's not a bird that can be mistaken for anything else.

The bird actually goes by several names: the Great Crested Crane, the Grey Crowned Crane, the Crested Crowned Crane, the Royal Crowned Crane. Whatever it's called, it's the national bird of Uganda. It's a large bird, bigger than it looks from the pictures I've seen. There are pictures of the Crested Crane all over the place--on money, the Ugandan flag, school logos, t-shirts, the side of buses--all over. It might be more common than the American Golden Eagle, but it's still not a bird you find just anywhere.