With the alias of celestial crane, the bird belongs to the Gruidae family of Gruiformes order. Its scientific name is Grus japonensis (Latin), or Red-Crowned Crane (English).     

It is a large-size wading bird, with a full body length of about 120 centimeters. The body feathers are almost completely white. The bareness in vertex is ponceau. There are a few black feathers on the forehead and lore. The larynx, cheek and neck are mostly dark brown. The sublevel and tertial feathers are black, prolonged and bent assuming the shape of a bow. The rectrices are short and white. The beak is celadon, and the feet are gray black.

It inhabits in reed and other barren marshy terrain, feeding on hydrophytic burgeons, seeds, aquatic insects, mollusks and fishes, etc. It usually starts building nests and breeding in middle and late April. The nests are built in wilted hays of shoals along the waters. It spawns two eggs per breed, which are hatched by male and female birds in turns. The incubation period lasts about 20 to 33 days. In autumn, after the young birds are able to fly, they migrate from the breeding place in the northeast to the south for hibernation.

It has a lifespan of about 60 years. Its elegant gestures and chirms represent a sense of transcendency. In Chinese traditional mythologies and folklores, it is regarded as "celestial crane", and the symbol of elegance and longevity, making it the favorable theme of Chinese traditional poems and paintings.

Red-Crowned Crane usually builds nests and breeds in the fenland on banks of the middle and lower reaches of Nenjiang River (a river in Heilongjiang Province), in addition to the valley of Songhua River and Wusuli River (rivers in northeastern China). In Yancheng City of Jiangsu Province, the largest habitat known in the world for its hibernation, the number of hibernating Red-Crowned Crane can reach 600. It has been listed in Appendix I of International Trade Convention on Endangered Animal and Plant Species. China has established a number of natural protection areas in Zalong, Xianghai, and Yancheng cities to protect the bird.