[2] The species today occur only in Africa, south of the Sahara Desert, and are the only cranes that can nest in trees.

This habitat is one reason the relatively small Balearica cranes are believed to closely resemble the ancestral members of the Gruidae.

Like all cranes, they eat insects, reptiles, and small mammals.

The genus Balearica was erected by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 with the black crowned crane (Balearica pavonina) as the type species.

Compared to the true cranes, genus Grus, which were always common in the Holarctic and adjacent regions, the present genus appears to have had a more Atlantic distribution, ranging into Europe and North America; it is not known from the fossil record of Asia and South America, as none have yet been discovered.