Each year, biologists with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service complete aerial surveys for the Aransas-Wood Buffalo population of whooping crane. These cranes spend their summers in their breeding grounds at Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada, before traveling 2,500 miles to the Texas coast to spend the winter in estuarine marshes, eating blue crab and Carolina wolfberry. In the 2025-2026 Survey Report, biologists estimated around 540 whooping cranes, including at least 57 juveniles, were present within the primary survey area, which comprises approximately 190,250 acres centered on Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.
The previous year’s survey estimated 557 whooping cranes within the primary survey area. The slight difference between estimates is within the margin of error. Population estimates vary from year to year, but the long-term growth rate of the whooping crane population has averaged 4.24% since 1938.
With the whooping crane’s wintering range expanding in recent years, cranes are increasingly using habitat outside of the primary survey area. Biologists that monitor the species are relying more and more on community scientists who report whooping crane sightings. These sightings are confirmed by resource professionals and help biologists estimate population size and better understand this iconic species.
This year, an additional 52 birds were observed outside the primary survey area during this survey, based on data from aerial surveys conducted in the secondary survey areas, a whooping crane GPS tracking study, and the sightings reported from the public to Texas Whooper Watch, eBird, and iNaturalist.
Eight of these whooping cranes remained at Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma all winter, their first ever recorded overwintering in Oklahoma. This discovery was made in part due to visitors and birders at the refuge reporting sightings during the yearly Christmas Bird Count Christmas Bird Count
The nation's longest-running community science bird project, the Christmas Bird Count occurs December 14 to January 5 every season and is coordinated by Audubon.
Learn more about Christmas Bird Count .
Conservation efforts across the Central Flyway and at and around Aransas National Wildlife Refuge have helped whooping cranes make a miraculous recovery. When listed as endangered in 1967 there were only around 50 of these birds left. Today the Aransas-Wood Buffalo Whooping Crane population is stable and has been estimated at over 500 for over 9 consecutive years.
The report can be viewed and downloaded here. More information about the survey and whooping cranes can also be found on the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge website or by calling the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Contact Station at: 361-349-1181.
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