They are distinctive among the cranes: adults are nearly all snowy white, except for their black primary feathers that are visible in flight, and with two breeding populations in the Arctic tundra of western and eastern Russia.

Their populations, particularly those in the western range, have declined drastically in the 20th century due to hunting along their migration routes and habitat degradation.

[needs update] The Siberian crane was formally described by Peter Simon Pallas in 1773 and given the binomial name Grus leucogeranus.

[3][4] The specific epithet is derived from the classical Greek words leukos for "white" and geranos for a "crane".

[5] Ustad Mansur, a 17th-century court artist and singer of Jahangir, had illustrated a Siberian crane about 100 years earlier.

[12] In the resulting rearrangement to create monophyletic genera, the Siberian crane was moved to the resurrected genus Leucogeranus.

The fore-crown, face and side of head is bare and brick red, the bill is dark and the legs are pinkish.

This is a fairly large species of crane, typically weighing 4.9–8.6 kg (11–19 lb) and standing about 140 cm (4 ft 7 in) tall.

The populations declined with changes in landuse, the draining of wetlands for agricultural expansion and hunting on their migration routes.

In the summer grounds they feed on a range of plants including the roots of hellebore (Veratrum misae), seeds of Empetrum nigrum as well as small rodents like lemmings and voles, earthworms, and fish.

They were earlier thought to be predominantly fish eating on the basis of the serrated edge of their bill, but later studies suggest that they take animal prey mainly when the vegetation is covered by snow.

[17] In their wintering grounds in China, they have been noted to feed to a large extent on the submerged leaves of Vallisneria spiralis.

[17] Captive breeding was achieved by the International Crane Foundation at Baraboo after numerous failed attempts.

Males often killed their mates and captive breeding was achieved by artificial insemination and the hatching of eggs by other crane species such as the sandhill and using floodlights to simulate the longer daylengths of the Arctic summer.

[33]) The western population of the Siberian crane had dwindled to four in 2002 and subsequently it was thought to be extirpated, but a single individual, named "Omid", has wintered in Iran since 2006–2007.

[1] The wintering site at Poyang in China holds an estimated 98% of the population and is threatened by hydrological changes caused by the Three Gorges Dam and other water development projects.

For the Yakuts and Yukaghirs, the white crane is a sacred bird associated with sun, spring and kind celestial spirits ajyy.