Greater Prairie-Chicken
The dawn courtship displays of the Greater Prairie-Chicken are one of the most stirring wildlife spectacles of the central United States and Canada. Sadly, habitat loss has led to steep declines of the species across its range, leaving one subspecies extinct and another nearly so. Once present in large numbers across wide expanses of native prairie and woodlands, the Greater Prairie-Chicken now occurs only in small, scattered populations. Even where still present, their future remains a matter of grave and immediate doubt.

Three subspecies of Greater Prairie-Chicken are currently recognized. One subspecies, the Heath Hen (Tympanuchus cupido cupido), formerly inhabited prairie and pine barrens of the mid-Atlantic states and southern New England, but suffered drastic population declines throughout the 19th century with the loss of habitat. The Heath Hen has been extinct since 1932.

Populations of Attwater's Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus cupido attwateri) numbered over a million individuals across south Texas and parts of Louisiana as late as the early 20th century, but declined precipitously as their coastal plain and oak-savannah habitats were converted to farmland. Now, fewer than 50 individuals remain in the wild, confined to small portions of southeast Texas.

The third subspecies, called simply the Greater Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus cupido pinnatus), was once common in prairie habitats mixed with oak woodland throughout the central United States and Canada. Upon the arrival of European settlers in the Midwest in the early 1800s, and the accompanying conversion of forest to agricultural land, the subspecies initially expanded its range. With the increasing loss of native prairie, however, the Greater Prairie-Chicken has been nearly or completely extirpated from Canada and several states. Now it inhabits remaining areas of prairie interspersed with cropland (often specifically managed to promote survival of the species), in the Dakotas, Nebraska, northeast Colorado, and northern Kansas, as well as isolated habitats in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Missouri. The species has also been reintroduced to Iowa, but nesting populations there are not well established.
Greater Prairie-Chicken Range Map

Loss of native prairie continues to be a major threat to the species, as breeding success is much diminished in fragmented prairie or agricultural land. The species may also face significant threats from predation and from egg-laying by Ring-necked Pheasants in Greater Prairie-Chicken nests.

Greater Prairie-Chickens eat leaves, seeds, buds, grain, and insects. Before the conversion of midwestern forests to cropland, Greater Prairie-Chickens also ate large quantitites of acorns, especially in winter. Crop residues, including corn and sorghum, appear to have largely replaced acorns in their diet.

In spring, Greater Prairie-Chickens gather on communal display sites, known as leks. Numbers may reach as high as 70, but on average, about 8 or 9 males are present at an active lek. Small groups of females are often but not always present. The males congregate before dawn, and remain for three to four hours. During this time, they perform elaborate courtship displays, strutting and stamping their feet, shaking their wings, fanning their tails, raising their neck feathers, and inflating the orange air sacs on their necks. They issue distinctive low booming sounds, amplified by the air sacs, audible across open areas at distances of more than two miles. Males also confront each other aggressively, jumping high in the air and striking each other with feet, wings, and bill. Such fights can lead to serious injury or death.

Displays and aggressive encounters among males serve to define territories on the lek and establish dominance hierarchies. Males older than 1.5 years of age are more likely than younger males to hold territories; the younger males may visit several leks during one breeding season, in attempting to establish a territory. Dominant males on a lek have the greatest breeding success, with one or two males engaging in 70 to 90 percent of copulations, which generally occur on the lek itself.

Nests are generally located less than half a mile from the lek. They are generally located in thick clumps of grass that provide both vertical and horizontal cover, and consist of feathers, dry grass, and twigs. Clutches consist of 11 or 12 eggs, on average. Females incubate eggs alone. Upon hatching, chicks are immediately able to feed themselves, though they still spend about half of daylight hours during their their first week nestled under the hen's feathers.

Greater Prairie-Chickens are stout, medium-sized grouse. Length is approximately 18 inches. Adults show fine but distinct barring on their entire bodies and their wings, with dark brown alternating with pale buff. Throats, lower cheeks, and lores (areas between eyes and bill) are also light tawny-buff. Bills are short and black; legs, completely feathered down to the toes, are pale buff.

Sexes may be somewhat difficult to distinguish, except when males are displaying in spring. Females have barred tails, while males' tails are usually solid brown. Males possess large black and buff-colored pinnae feathers on the backs of their necks. In display, males raise these pinnae feathers vertically above their heads. Displaying males also inflate round, bright yellow-orange throat sacs and show yellow-orange eyebrows.

Attwater's Prairie Chicken is generally about 10 percent smaller than midwestern Greater Prairie-Chicken, with shorter, more rufous pinnae in males and less densely feathered legs.


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