UN Endangered Species Stamps 2025

UN ENDANGERED SPECIES STAMPS 2025 – The Grey Crowned Crane.

Last but not least species of this stamps collection in collaboration with @unstamps is a quite popular one: the Grey Crowned Crane.

This flamboyant bird is known for the characteristic golden crown on the nape, made of quill-like feathers.

It doesn’t seem a typical crane, it has a small robust beak instead of the sword-shaped one of other cranes such as Antigone and Grus groups.
It makes booming and honking calls instead of the classic “crane trumpeting” and, it has conserved and ancestral trait among the crane family: a longer, grasping 1st toe, that allows this bird to perch and roost on trees.

It lives in Eastern and southern Africa, the name of the genus, Balearica (of the Balearic Islands) is in this case misleading about its distribution. This crane is on the flag and the coat of arms of Uganda. 🇺🇬

In spite of being so popular, it is an endangered species, the major threats are habitat loss, in particular due to overgrazing and pesticide pollution.

This illustration has been made for the 2025 UN Endangered species stamps collection in collaboration with UN Postal Service and @cites.