The Crane Nest Camera is LIVE!

conserving rocky mountain greater sandhill cranes + their habitat through science + education

The Greater Sandhill Crane is an iconic species of the Yampa Valley in Northwest Colorado. Returning in the spring from wintering grounds in New Mexico and Arizona, cranes nest and raise their young in wetland areas throughout the valley.

LATEST NEWS >

2025 Crane Nest Camera Season is LIVE:

Don’t miss the action! Visit our Crane Nest Camera web page to view the live stream and stay up to date with the season.  Join the conversation by leaving comments or asking questions on our blog at the bottom of the page. 

We can’t wait to see the season unfold and hope you’ll join us on this journey.

 

Crane Contests Underway:

CCCC is accepting entries for three contests that allow you to showcase your creative skills and your appreciation of Greater Sandhill Cranes. Please follow the links below for complete contest rules and information: 

Reach out to us at info@coloradocranes.org with questions. We look forward to receiving your entries!

 

 

 

 

 

Upcoming Grouse & Crane Tours:

Join Yampatika and CCCC for a unique program at the Howe Ranch: tours leave from the Yampatika office in Steamboat Springs and travel to the breathtaking Elkhead area of the Yampa Valley to view Sharp-tailed Grouse lekking action and Greater Sandhill Cranes dance.

  • Tours on May 3rd & 10th, 2025
  • 3:40 am – 11 am
  • Ages 16+
  • $125/person – includes transportation & breakfast

Space is limited to 8 people per tour.

Visit Yampatika’s website to register & learn more about these tours!

 

View the 5th Crane Nest Camera season:

YAMPA VALLEY CRANE FESTIVAL

Thank you for attending the 13th annual festival. We hope you enjoyed your time in the Yampa Valley! Save the date for the 14th annual festival:

August 28 – 31, 2025

Our appreciation for the crane grows with the slow unraveling of earthly history. His tribe, we now know, stems out of the remote Eocene. The other members of the fauna in which he originated are long since entombed within the hills. When we hear his call we hear no mere bird. We hear the trumpet in the orchestra of evolution. He is the symbol of our untamable past, of that incredible sweep of millennia which underlies and conditions the daily affairs of birds and men.

– Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac