Juveniles are similar but slightly lighter, with tawny coloration on the head, and no long wing plumes.

Blue cranes are birds of the dry grassy uplands, usually the pastured grasses of hills, valleys, and plains with a few scattered trees.

Even species with lower population numbers now (such as Siberian or whooping cranes) are found over a considerable range in their migratory movements.

Humans are also attacked if they approach a nest too closely, with the aggressive male having torn clothes and drawn blood in such cases.

Threats to their eggs and chicks include large savannah and white-throated monitor lizards, egg-eating snakes, foxes, jackals, birds-of-prey, meerkats, and mongoose.

Eventually, a female from the group and the male appear to "select" each other and both engage in the dance of throwing objects and jumping.

In the last two decades, the blue crane has largely disappeared from the Eastern Cape, Lesotho, and Eswatini.

The population in the northern Free State, Limpopo, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and North West Province has declined by up to 90%.

The blue crane is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.

[9] Traditionally, when a man distinguished himself in battle or otherwise, he was often decorated by a chief with blue crane feathers in a ceremony called ukundzabela.

[10] Because of the association with warriors and heroism, the Isitwalandwe Medal was created to honour those who had "made an outstanding contribution and sacrifice to the liberation struggle", that is, those who resisted the apartheid regime in South Africa (1949–1991) in various ways.