A new nest for Glen Ellyn's cranes

Pui is the more inquisitive of the pair.

She struts to the open cage door as if to welcome the visitors to her temporary home.

Nebula is almost sheepish when the interlopers poke their heads into the cage he shares with the older female sandhill crane at Glen Ellyn's Willowbrook Wildlife Center.

The duo are biding their time in this makeshift pen as the finishing touches are put on what will be their permanent -- and far more palatial -- home at the educational and rehabilitation center.

"They're not great flyers, so the new enclosure doesn't have to be that tall," said Sandy Fejt, the center's supervisor. "But it's tall enough that they can do their leaping and dancing. We really don't want them flying."

Luxurious nest

The brand new 1,800-square-foot pen is situated away from the center's other cages that permanently house native animals. It's specially built with a nesting shelter, is enclosed in nylon netting and contains a two-foot-deep clay-lined pool with a re-circulation pump that draws water from a nearby pond. At a price tag of $101,000, that's the lifestyle of the feathered and long-beaked.

The DuPage County Forest Preserve foot the bill for the cranes' new digs, but the DuPage Wildlife Foundation is in the midst of a four-year fundraising campaign to pay it back.

"Our foundation has never done something so large to commit ourselves to something like this," foundation President Coco Luedi said. "We've had a couple of fundraising activities, including the 'Concert for Cranes' at Mayslake, and we're doing pretty good."

There's even a donation box at the center's entrance for visitors to contribute pocket change or a few dollars.

Luedi said they had raised more than enough money to cover the first installment already. The foundation is also offering up naming rights to the enclosure for $50,000.

"They can put their name on it or call it anything they want," she said, adding, "Well, not anything, I guess."

Much ado

So why the fuss over two birds that aren't even all that rare in Illinois?

Well for one, they're the former pets of millionaire industrialist Brooks McCormick of International Harvester fame, who sold his 607-acre horse farm in Warrenville to the forest preserve for public use. The birds were also part of a program that helped re-establish whooping crane populations. And they have lived their entire lives in captivity.

"They've been human-habituated for too long," Fejt said. "They wouldn't know how to survive on their own."

Pui turns 20 in July. Nebula is 14. They were gifted to McCormick by a Wisconsin-based crane foundation, and were part of his aviary collection at the farm, said St. James Farm property director Wayne Zaininger.

"We had ducks, pheasants swans and other birds, but by the time the property was turned over to the forest preserve the cranes and swans were the only ones left," Zaininger said. "The swans will remain at the farm, but we had to find a new home for the cranes."

Willowbrook offered assistance but didn't have the facilities for long-term housing. An agreement was reached between the non-profit foundation and the forest preserve administration for building and financing a new pen, and the birds suddenly had a new home. They were moved to Willowbrook a few weeks ago, just ahead of a public unveiling of the McCormick property, Fejt said.

"It was really in their best interest because we do have seven-day animal care and we have space big enough for them to be here," Fejt said.

Big birds, big deal

Standing about 4 feet tall, the lanky, gray-feathered cranes sport a cap of red and a long beak.

"We wear goggles when we're handling the birds because the beak is that sharp and powerful," Fejt said.

The only physical difference between Pui and Nebula is the younger male is slightly larger.

"They both have that beautiful red head, but there's nothing that makes it obvious that you're looking at a male or a female," she said.

But what separates these two from wild sandhill cranes is their work history. They were born as foster fowl for first-time whooping crane parents. Later, they would also be foster parents to whooping crane "colts."

Because the rarer whooping cranes don't breed as easily as their sandhill cousins, they became endangered in many areas. When first-time parent whooping cranes would mate and produce eggs in captivity, caretakers would swap out those eggs for the sturdier sandhill crane eggs. Researchers soon learned that sandhill cranes were also extraordinary parents and could be relied upon to take care of the pilfered whooping crane eggs.

"For what these cranes did, we felt it was the right thing to do for them," Luedi said. "It's a good place for retirement."