Black-necked Cranes, Blackbrook in the Snow, 03/01/10

Grus nigricollis

Lovely image. The lack of fuss they make over these birds does my head in!!

Black-necked Cranes

I need to check my 19th century London Zoo stuff, but it's at least possible that these are the only Black-necked Cranes ever to set foot in the UK; which makes them rarer as a UK resident than those black & white bear things that everyone makes such a fuss about.
Blackbrook really have missed an advertising gimmick on trhe lines of 'see stuff nobody else in the UK has got' [the only serious Ibis collection, for a start].

At least it looks like there's a fox-proof fence....

How can you tell if this fence is fox-proof? How is it made?

it is fox proof its 2inch weldmesh with 2 strands of electric wire on the outside aswell as a dogleg that is a few feet under the ground, and then it is netted over

Gotcha, there are American zoos that have the same problem with red foxes. Some capercaillie may have been lost due to them.

Beautifull birds but I guess in the 19th centuary some collections in the UK must have kept this species. I myself took care for one of the first pairs kept in mainland Europe at Walsrode Birdpark. Due to their breeding-successes the species is now a little more widespread and even some privat collections do keep and breed them now !

Black-necked Cranes...

Before the current breeding population was established, the only one I have ever heard of in the western world was the bird Delacour had between the wars. London Zoo, Woburn & Lilford all had Whooping cranes, but I'm not aware of anyone having Black-necked.

FBBird was right. I did some research and indeed the first Black-necked crane brought to the western world was a specimen brougth back by Delacour in 1924 to his park at Cleres in France.