Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Sandhill crane

Anybody eat em? Buddy in Montana says they’re amazing, wants me to apply for a permit..🤣🤣

Weren’t they nicknamed the “ribeye in the sky”. Might be mixing it up with another bird though.

Yep that’s what he says.. I call bullshiit!!! 🤣

Never eaten one.

The flying beef thing though....i have heard more than once.

From people that have eaten them even!

Go for it.

I think Rinella has an episode on Meateater where they grill up some of them and man, it looks like beef and from the eating part they chewed like beef. I couldn’t have cared less about them till I saw that and now I wished I had a freezer full of em!

Hope you do it. Sounds fun and the damned things are like teradachtyls (sp)

Never eaten them but they seem pretty popular up here, of course there's some folks that eat rotten seal meat too. Don't need any special permits other than your normal stamps. I've seen 10's of thousands of them flying overhead for days while I was moose hunting and thought I'd have been better off with a shotgun. Can't be too bad and I'd like to try it out sometime.

Never shot one, and have never eaten any of the "ribeye of the sky," but those who have say they're the best eating bird they've ever had.

I tried it at a wild game feed once. I don't know how they cooked it but it was like trying to eat a super ball.

When I lived in Fairbanks, we’d shoot them in Delta along with geese. Haven’t shot one in a number of years.

The breast is enormous. The keel bone is typically as deep as a 2x4. They have very little fat and I like to bake with bacon on the top. Also, unlike domestic fowl, the breast being a heavily used muscle, it is a very deep red color.

I would strip the meat off all the sinews in the legs and make crane leg stew.

Yep, you got the correct bird.

When I was a graduate student living in Manitoba, I ate dozens of them every year and I can see why the discrepancy among eating reports!

After a year, all mature birds look alike and some of them evidently live a bloody long time, judging from how tough they can be!

Fortunately, it is easy to identify the young of the year before you shoot and EVERY ONE OF THOSE I've shot has been nice and tender.

If the bird has a "two tone" head, don't shoot it - it could be very old. Shoot the one with uniform colored heads, they are the young of the year, and are tender!



John

Great info John. Thank you.

I’d like to try one of them! Looks delicious!

I shoot a lot of em and yes,, they can be quite good.

I cube the breast and marinate in whatever.......skewer with veggies on shish ka bob stick.
Like other game, don't overcook......medium rare!

Absolutely! Still want to get into a serious mess of them again for putting up...

Closest bird to them would be either guinea hen or snipe...

when they were legal to kill in Florida, I ate a lot of 'em. Much better for the table than a wild turkey.

I only hunted turkeys once.....over pointing dogs.......a big tom makes an interesting flush......but I too was disappointed
in the table quality.......I'm sure the guys that hunt em regularly have come up with better recipes.

I knocked feathers out of one with both barrels one morning in the salt marshes, he backpedaled out of there and flew out of sight. Bought a 10ga auto loader the next week and never had another opportunity on cranes.

Seems like the only time we see them here is about a week after season. But everyone I’ve ever met who’s eaten one has claimed they are fantastic. Maybe some day I’ll get to shoot one and find out for myself.

Our son went to school at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. During migration you would hear and often see literally thousands of them. Very odd vocally. Wing spans of near 6’. When cloudy and flying low at nite you could hear their wing flaps. We’ve killed a few...vary from awesome to terrible. As said earlier...age matters. We were usually very pleased with them

We usually see and hear lots of them migrating through during deer season. You’ll hear their call and strain to see them, then finally locate them up there by the 747s. Dang they fly high.

I’ve seen thousands of them land on our wheat field during deer season. Never shot one though. I’ve always heard that a wounded one would blind your dog that tried to retrieve it.

Tasty for wild fowl, but "ribeye of the sky" no f ing way. Not much different from a wild turkey IMO.