In the heart of America’s Great Plains, a remarkable spectacle unfolds in the spring which rivals many of the great migrations of our planet’s history. Overhead, skeins of Sandhill Cranes grace the vast skies with their presence. Their trumpeting calls resound across the landscape as they embark on their timeless journey from non-breeding ranges in the southern United States and Mexico to their northern breeding grounds. Within the patchwork quilt of landscapes that shape their annual cycle, Nebraska’s Platte River emerges as the centerpiece of their migration—an indispensable thread of a river in the intricate tapestry of their journey. Between February and April, the Platte River emerges as a vital corridor for migratory birds and a lifeline for about one million Sandhill Cranes, the world’s largest population of this ancient species. Through millennia, the braided channels of the Platte have sculpted the landscape, creating ideal roosting sandbars spread between the...