Zambia Philately: 1968 New Currency Definitives – 20n Crowned Crane

The grey-crowned crane (Balearica regulorum), also known as the African crowned crane, golden crested crane, golden-crowned crane, East African crane, East African crowned crane, African Crane, Eastern crowned crane, South African crane, Crested crane, is a bird in the crane family, Gruidae. It is found in eastern and southern Africa, and is the national bird of Uganda.

The Grey crowned crane frequents wetlands, savannahs, open grasslands, and cultivated areas. In parts of East Africa, it occurs in modified habitats like pastures, croplands, and other irrigated areas, while in South Africa, it is found in marshes, grasslands, savannahs, and cultivated fields. They eat plant matter, including fresh parts of grasses, seed heads of sedges, and insects such as grasshoppers, locusts and crickets, and worms, lizards, frogs, and crabs.

Grey crowned cranes are monogamous and mate for life. During the breeding season, these birds perform beautiful displays: dancing, bowing, running, and jumping while making low booming calls that inflate their gular sacs.

Details

• Designer: Gabriel Ellison
• Printer: Harrison & Sons Ltd.
• Process: Photogravure
• Paper: 
• Watermark: None
• Perf: 14.5 x 13.5
• Gum:
  • Gum Arabic (original printing)
  • Polyvinyl Alcohol (reprint)
• Cylinders:
  • 1A (Brown), 1A (Red), 1A (Yellow), 1A (Copper)
  • 1B (Brown), 1B (Red), 1B (Yellow), 1B (Copper)
• Sheet: 5 x 10
• Quantity:
• Reprintings: 7 January 1969

Cylinder Numbers

Sheet Numbers

References

• Animalia: Grey Crowned Crane
• Wikipedia: Grey Crowned Crane
• Zambia’s Postage Stamps: The Post-Federation Stamp Issues of Northern Rhodesia (1963-1971 – A. R. Drysdall, J. Case