The hopping crane is a species of bird that appears in the cartoon show episode "Hopping Cough Smurfs". It makes its nest on Bad Mountain, which is one of the locations the Smurfs are sent to in order to find the ingredients for the cure to the "hopping cough" disease, with one of its ingredients being the bird's tail feather.
Originally it was intended that Nat Smurf was going to confront the hopping crane and persuade it to give the Smurfs one of its tail feathers, but unfortunately Clumsy ended up dropping down into its nest and waking up the bird, causing it to fly off with Clumsy until it hit its head on the bottom side of a ledge. When Clumsy encountered the bird again, it got one of its legs tangled up in a vine on the side of a mountain. After Clumsy freed the hopping crane from the vine, it repaid the favor by rescuing Clumsy from a mountain lion. Apparently Clumsy and the hopping crane were kindred spirits in that they were both rather uncoordinated, which led to Clumsy obtaining the tail feather that the Smurfs sought after.
The hopping crane's name is based on that of the whooping crane.