A grey crowned crane turns in profile against the soft green of Kenya's Amboseli National Park, its crown of stiff golden bristles lit by early morning sun. The pale blue eye, the white cheek, and the red wattle sit close together near the top of the frame, and the long grey neck falls away beneath them in a sweep of loose plumes. We had stopped to watch an adult leading a chick through the grass. The adult was never still for long, always shifting, always keeping the young bird close. Then it lifted its head and held for a moment, long enough for one clean profile, before turning back to the chick. Grey crowned cranes are listed as Endangered, their numbers falling as the wetlands and grasslands they breed in are drained, grazed, and farmed. A chick in the grass at Amboseli is not a small thing.
