A bird’s eye view of white cranes resting: The photo shows part of a flock of over 500 birds. The picture was taken over the Wolong wetland in Shenyang in the north-eastern province of Liaoning. White cranes are endangered. Every year, around 2,000 of them spend part of the year in Wolong. What makes them so unique compared to other crane species is that they lack pigment-forming cells.