Greater Prairie-Chicken
Greater prairie-chickens are large, barred birds in the grouse family.
About This Species
Once a state endangered species that dipped to population levels as low as 600 birds in Colorado, greater prairie chickens are now flourishing in the grasslands of the northeast corner of the state. Greater prairie chickens can be found on sand sagebrush rangeland, in medium-tall grass or on previously farmed cropland that has been re-established to grassland habitat.
Greater prairie-chickens aren’t actually a variety of chicken, but they are large birds in the grouse family. Possibly the most dramatic feature of greater prairie-chickens is their spring courtship display.
Once numbered in the millions, between 1973 and 1993, Colorado’s greater prairie-chickens were listed by the state as an endangered species. In 1993, the birds were delisted to threatened and in 1998 they were delisted to a special concern/non-game status. Through CPW recovery efforts, which included cooperative habitat projects with eastern Colorado landowners, greater prairie-chicken numbers have grown from a low of 600 birds in 1973 to a healthy population which can easily sustain a limited harvest.
More Information:
Physical Characteristics
Brown and white barred feathers. Mature males have orange sacs on the sides of their neck that they reveal by lifting their neck feathers during mating displays.
Range
Greater prairie-chickens are found in Northeastern Colorado. They are fairly common local residents in the sandhills of northern and central Yuma County, extreme eastern Washington County and extreme southern Phillips County.
Habitat
They prefer mid-grass sandsage grasslands on sandhills, mixed with cornfields.
Reproduction
The greater prairie-chicken performs breeding displays in areas called leks in March and April. Each male will set up its own spot on a lek area and will defend that from other males. Over the course of the six-week lekking season, you can see an individual in the same spot while they are on the lek. They do not roam around the entire lek.
On a lek there are usually only one or two dominant males that will do the breeding when hens do come to the lek. All the other males are pretty much just putting on a show — some are young that are learning and some are just out of luck, which makes for some good banter among the tour groups that come to see the displays.
The hens start coming onto the lek in mid-March, just before or at dawn, typically in groups.
They have air sacs on either side of their throats that inflate and deflate to make the sound, which is similar to what is produced when you blow across the top of a coke bottle, hence the booming sound.
Hens will visit leks again through April and into the first part of May before dispersing into the prairie and developing a nest over the course of a couple weeks. Like most ground-laying birds, they can have a large clutch size. Greater prairie chickens on average lay a clutch of 12 or 13 eggs and after a 23-26 day incubation period, all of the eggs hatch at one time.
Once hatched, the diet of the chicks is 90 percent protein. They are after bugs, and good bug habitat. Therefore, brood habitat requires diverse vegetation with plenty of flowering plants, relatively open ground and a diversity of plant structure. Chicks are dependent on their mother for 8-10 weeks, foraging on the landscape through the fall.