Going through video from his trail camera, Jon Croff did a double take. There, going through the Michigan woods, seemed prehistoric creatures.

” I believed they were dinosaurs at first,” Croff wrote in a Facebook article.

Upon closer inspection, Croff realized what he believed were ancient beasts were actually sandhill cranes, a species of bird belonging to North America. What had caught Croff off-guard was their presence in the woodland– this was a unusual occurrence.

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” I was truly surprised to see them in the woods,” Croff taid. “I was used to seeing cranes in open fields.”

Croff, who has always been a nature fan and enjoys documenting natural occasions around his home, had actually taken photos of these cranes before, out in the meadows around Lake Orion, Michigan.

However, in the darkness of the woods, the cranes took on a various quality. The red coloring on their heads combined with their dark, pointed beaks gave them a unique new look.

“They appeared prehistoric,” Croff said.

Croff compared the cranes in the woods to the parasaurolophus, who likewise had a reddish-colored head and a beaked face.

The birds we understand today actually evolved from a group of dinosaurs called theropods. In fact, dinosaurs are more closely pertaining to birds than they are to alligators or lizards.

So, while Croff really did not actually see a dinosaur that day, it turns out he had not been away.