The Crane Nest Camera is LIVE!

Photo: Kathy Simpson

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 >

Grouse and Crane Tours:

There are a few tickets left for tours on April 18 and May 2 to see the beautiful dancing birds of Northwest Colorado! A collaboration between CCCC, Yampatika, and Colorado Grouse Tours, this program is a unique opportunity to view these birds in an incredible landscape. The first tour is a traveling route and the second will be a Sharp-tailed Grouse blink/lek and Howe Ranch tour. Visit Yampatika’s website to learn more and get your tickets!

Showcase Your Creative Skills for Cranes!

CCCC is accepting entries for two contests – follow the links below for complete contest rules or visit www.coloradocranes.org for more information and submit entries by August 7, 2026.

The Crane Coloring Contest is open to kids ages 3-18 years old. The coloring page can be downloaded from the contest page and is available at libraries throughout the Yampa Valley.

CCCC’s Crane Photo Contest is open to all amateur and professional photographers. Participants can choose from four different categories. Visit the contest page for official rules and instructions.

Thank You for Your Support!

A big craniac THANK YOU to all who joined us for us for the 4th annual Crane Migration Celebration on March 13 at the Depot.  This event celebrated the cranes’ return to Northwest Colorado and successfully raised over $60,000 to support CCCC’s mission!

We are deeply grateful to our attendees, silent auction donors and artists, volunteers, musicians, board directors, staff, and sponsors for making this celebration possible.

Thank you to our event sponsors for their generous support!

Silver Sponsor
• Steamboat Ski & Resort

Bronze Sponsors
• First Chair Operating Co.
• Born Free Wildlife Rehabilitation
• The Group Real Estate/Group Gives Yampa Valley
• SBNY
• IHS Farms

YAMPA VALLEY CRANE FESTIVAL

Save the date for the 15th annual Yampa Valley Crane Festival on September 3 – 6, 2026. Learn more about all that the festival has to offer:

View Crane Nest Camera highlights:

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