Red - Crowned Crane Chick Growing In Japanese Facility
A newborn red-crowned crane chick is attracting visitors to a special facility for the nationally protected bird in northern Japan.
The facility's staff believe the chick hatched May 7 from an egg which had been incubated by birds named Kota and Shoko. They say the egg was laid by a different bird at the facility in Kushiro City, Hokkaido.
The chick has grown to about 20-centimeters tall and is covered with soft brown feathers.
Visitors enjoy watching the lovely figure spreading its little wings, running after its parents and being fed.
The facility was reopened last Thursday. It had been closed since late April because a highly pathogenic avian flu virus had been detected in a dead crow at the facility.
Many amateur photographers have been visiting and taking pictures of the baby bird.
A man who visits there every year said the chick looks especially cute when it takes shelter under its parent's wings. He said he is glad that the hatching was successful this year again.
Crane keeper Takashima Kenji said the chick was born safely thanks to its foster parents' tireless incubation efforts. Takashima said he would like people to come to share the precious scenes of the cranes' child raising.