Crane

For other uses, see Crane.

"We saw those castua cranes once."

―Mattis Banz, to Sari Nadle^[1]

A crane was a type of bird. Types of cranes included the castua crane^[1] and the marsh crane.^[2] In 3 BBY,^[3] Princess Leia Organa met the girl Amilyn Holdo during a pathfinding class on the planet Alderaan and mentally noted that Holdo's thinness and gawkiness reminded her of a marsh crane. Later, during another session of the class on the world Pamarthe, Holdo tilted her head and Organa was reminded of a marsh crane looking for food.^[2]

By 34 ABY,^[4] the Resistance members Sari Nadle and Mattis Banz saw a castua crane on the planet D'Qar.^[1] That year,^[4] while on the First Order's Starkiller Base, Nadle and Banze remembered occasions they saw birds on D'Qar, including when they saw castua cranes.^[1]

Behind the scenes

Milestones

A relief of a crane depicted on a lightsaber hilt.

In the current Star Wars canon, a crane was first mentioned in Claudia Gray's 2017 novel Leia, Princess of Alderaan.^[2] In the Star Wars Legends continuity, a whooping crane was mentioned in Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon, written by L. Neil Smith as the second installment of the Star Wars: The Lando Calrissian Adventures series.^[5]

An image of a crane first appeared in "Lop & Ochō," a short film that was released as part of the first volume of the non-canon Star Wars: Visions series. The animated short, produced by Geno Studio, was released on Disney+^[6] on September 22, 2021.^[7] Prior to the short's release, images of a crane were first depicted simultaneously in the original Japanese and English dub trailers for the series, which were both uploaded to the official Star Wars YouTube channel on August 17 of that year.^[8]^[9] The crane was identified in the 2022 art book The Art of Star Wars: Visions, written by Zack Davisson.^[10] In the real world, cranes are a type of tall wading bird.^[11]

Lop & Ochō

Concept art of a crane depicted on a box.

The Art of Star Wars: Visions established a crane to be a type of bird with two legs, two wings, and a beak, and that a relief of a crane is depicted on the hilt of a lightsaber^[10] that was passed down through the generations of the Yasaburō clan, a notable family on the planet Tao. Images of cranes that are golden in color and have flowers in their mouths are also depicted on the top and side of the box in which the lightsaber is stored.^[6]

The Yasaburō clan's lightsaber, including the relief of a crane on it, was designed by Ren Ishimori, and concept art of the lightsaber was colored by Yuichi Kuboki.^[12] In traditional paintings of the birds and flowers genre, the bird often holds a flower in its mouth, so a star-shaped flower was placed in the mouth of the bird depicted on the box for the Yasaburō clan's lightsaber.^[10]

The Song of Four Wings

"The legends of your kind talk about birds just like these, huh? A guardian deity."

―Crane, to Woopas^[13]

Cranes appeared in the form of paper cranes in "The Song of Four Wings", a short film released as part of the third volume of Visions that was produced by Project Studio Q. The animated short released on Disney+^[13] on October 29, 2025. Concept art of the paper cranes was revealed ahead of the short's release in a StarWars.com article published on April 25 of that year.^[14]

In "The Song of Four Wings," the human princess Crane found the Gigoran child Woopas in the ruins of a village that had been destroyed by the Galactic Empire on the planet Joetz. Crane noticed several paper cranes^[13] with four wings configured like an X-wing starfighter^[14] that Woopas had made himself, and noted she was familiar with Gigoran legends that spoke of the birds as guardian deities. After Crane helped Woopas safely escape the planet, he played with a paper crane aboard a starship, while Crane held and looked at another. While Crane spoke with Admiral Basil Kiucee, Woopas used the Force to levitate his paper crane.^[13]