Position of Ukranian Demoiselle Cranes within world population of the species. - Yu.A. Andryushchenko. - Berkut. 6 (1-2). 1997. P. 33-46.
According to numerous literature data the present world range of Demoiselle Crane is more extensive than it was supposed before. In Ukraine this species is distributed in Kherson, Zaporizhzhya, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Lugansk regions and in the Crimea; its number here is about 600-700 individuals or 200-250 breeding pairs during the breeding period. Cranes prefer to dispose their nests in thin, sporse (average density of progected cover is 16,1 %) and short (on average h = 13,4 sm), desiradly mosaic grass. Majority of birds nests in agricultural fields (n cases of nesting = 105), mainly occupied barley (35,3 %), wheat (15,2 %), maize (14,3 %), sunflower crops (9,5 %), fallows (14,3 %). Breeding period of the Demoiselle Crane in Ukraine lasts from the beginning of the second decade of April up to the end of second decade of August. This species wos formely spread in the Ukrainian steppe where conditions for its nesting were available. Adaptation to the agicultural landscapes perhaps was developing here in parallel with the beginning and development of human agricultural activity. From the beginning of August birds that had finished thir breeding season, non-breeding or summering begin to group at the territory of some shallow water areas, up to the middle of this month they form the most western in Eurasia premigratory congregation at the Central Sivash area. Number of birds in some years is about 1000 individuals. [Russian].
Key words: Demoiselle Crane, Anthropoides virgo, Ukraine, population, breeding range, number, ecology, habitat, breeding, egg, migration.