UPLAND >> He dances, he hops, he calls out for a mate.

But he’s not likely to find one.

He — or perhaps she, we really don’t know — is an East African crowned crane, also known as a grey crowned crane. As the name suggests, it’s clearly not native to Upland.

• Video: East African crowned crane explores Rancho Cucamonga

But according to locals, amateur photographers and bird enthusiasts, this handsome fellow has made a home in Cucamonga Basin No. 6, a flood control and groundwater recharge area south of the Colonies Crossroads shopping center near the 210 Freeway.

Calls to both the Los Angeles and San Diego zoos indicated they’re not short a crane. But the tag on the left leg indicates he belonged to someone.

Alta Loma resident Suzanne Stull spotted the bird Monday morning.

“I like to take bird and wildlife photos and hiked around the basin, hoping to find something interesting,” she said in an email. The bird was so interesting, she had to take to the internet to dig up information.

Contacted by this publication, Steve Duncan, treasurer of San Dimas-based Avicultural Society of America, headed east Thursday to Upland. Duncan, who owns an East African crowned crane, raises them to sell to private collectors.

“Grey crowned cranes are well-established in captivity, but they are by no means common,” he said in an email. “There really aren’t that many people who have the space to keep them. They are mostly found in zoos or in large private collections with waterfowl.”

Duncan first heard of a similar bird around Archibald Avenue and the 210 about six months ago, but he wrote it off as a misidentification. Now he believes Stull’s sighting is the same bird.

Duncan gave the bird a clean bill, if you pardon the pun, of health.

“It is very healthy, but does appear quite lonely. It called repeatedly while I was there. Crowned cranes have a strange honking call they do to make contact with their own kind,” he said. The birds are monogamous and very loyal to their mates. The dancing and stomping moves are “social behavior” the crane would use in courtship.

Duncan said it may be wishful thinking on the crane’s part.

The land the crane has made its new home is now owned by San Bernardino County, said Charles Moorrees, general manager for the San Antonio Water Co. No employees have mentioned the bird, although egrets are common in the area.

“What a beautiful bird,” Moorrees said after seeing a photo.

The cranes’ wetland habitat in Africa is under severe pressure from agricultural development so their numbers in the wild are plummeting, Duncan said.

“It is important to keep the existing captive population going for educational purposes, research and as a backup population,” Duncan said, adding that the birds in private U.S. collections are all captive-bred from stock imported many years ago.

It turns out the basin makes a good home, Duncan said in a phone interview. The birds hang out a foot-deep in water so the splashing will alert them to predators and they eat almost anything — roots, insects, small invertebrates, reptile and fish.

“They’re not that picky.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article has been edited to correct the location of Cucamonga Basin No. 6.