Reading and vocabulary. Whooping Crane

You may weigh more than a whooping crane (and if you don’t you better start getting seconds at dinner), but you probably aren’t taller than one! Adults are about five feet tall, which makes them the tallest birds in North America. But even as tall as they are, whooping cranes weigh only about 15 pounds, thanks to their hollow bones.

Whooping cranes live in wetlands, marshes, mudflats, wet prairies, and fields. They’re not picky about their meals—they have a varied diet and eat small fish, reptiles, and insects, as well as grains, marsh plants, and acorns.

Whooping cranes really       [like, likes] to 'whoop it up' when it       [come, comes] to attracting a mate. They call        [loud, loudly] and do what might       [look, looks] like a crazy dance to get attention. They       [flap, flaps] their wings, shake their       [head, heads], jump up and down, and toss around feathers and grass!

These birds are            , but scientists have used some pretty interesting tricks to help them         . First they relocated one       to Florida, but the birds never learned to migrate. Conservationists were determined to help the birds flourish and thrive, so they used a special trick with another Florida flock. Scientists "taught" the younger birds to         by having them follow an ultralight aircraft from Florida to Wisconsin. After the birds bred and hatched their        , they’d follow the plane back to Wisconsin!

​​In addition to the year-round Florida flock and the one that migrates from Florida to Wisconsin, another flock flies from Texas to Canada and      again each year. These whooping cranes are really spreading their wings!