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.

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Call to Artists – Deadline Extended!

CCCC seeks artists to lend their creativity by decorating yard art cranes and gourds for the Yampa Valley Crane Festival’s Crane Art Display and Online Auction. Interested artists should submit their applications by May 15, 2026.

  • Applications will be reviewed, and CCCC will select artists to decorate 12 yard art cranes and 12 gourds to be sold in the online auction during the festival.
  • Selected artists will be notified by May 22, 2026.
  • The crane models and gourds will be distributed to participating artists for decoration, and must be returned to CCCC by July 15.

The finished cranes and gourds, with appropriate artist credit, will be showcased at Bud Werner Memorial Library during the 15th annual Yampa Valley Crane Festival taking place Sept. 3 – 6, 2026. All proceeds from the Crane Art Auction will support the festival. For complete details and application, click the button below. Questions? email info@coloradocranes.org.

Artist Application

Showcase Your Creative Skills for Cranes!

CCCC is accepting entries for two contests – follow the links below for complete contest rules. 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.

The 2026 Nest Camera Season has concluded:

We extend sincere gratitude to our incredible Nest Camera Production Team and to all of our nest camera viewers for a wonderful and exciting season. We captured many interesting behavioral observations, an amazing diversity of wildlife in the wetland, and best of all, we were fortunate enough to watch this crane pair hatch two chicks and follow them throughout the first two weeks of life. For more, visit the Nest Camera web page.

You can catch the highlights of the season or view the recorded livestreams on the Colorado Cranes YouTube channel.

Visit us during the Yampa Valley Crane Festival for a talk from CCCC featuring Lessons Learned from 5 years of the Crane Nest Camera!

Thanks for a great season.

 

 

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