2001: a chicken odyssey
Click on the links to see original artwork by Adrian Binns
Members of the Grouse family in North America
include 6 species called Grouse, 3 called Ptarmigan and 2 Prairie-Chickens.
All members of the Grouse Family are fowl-like birds
with short, curved, strong bills and short, rounded wings; flight is strong and
rapid but relatively short.
Grouse, prairie-chickens and ptarmigans differ from
other gallinaceous birds such as pheasants, quails, and turkeys in having their
nostrils hidden by feathers. The short hind toe (hallux) is somewhat higher
(elevated) than the three front toes and the legs are feathered wholly or in
part in most species; also the legs have no spurs.
Members of the Grouse Family grow ‘snowshoes’ in
fall and early winter, an adaptation to their northern environment. In
ptarmigans these ‘snowshoes’ are a dense mat of stiff feathers on the toes. On
other grouse, a row of pectinations 2-3mm long grow on each side of the
toes. The more southerly Attwater’s
Greater Prairie-Chicken and Lesser Prairie-Chicken have only slightly developed
snowshoes or none.
The Arena Birds or ‘lekking’ Grouse
Arena Bird; the term applies to a species in which
the males engage in communal courtship displays on traditional ‘arenas’ or
leks. Lek is derived from the Swedish ‘leka’ meaning to play.
Prairie-Chickens, Sharp-tailed Grouse and Sage
Grouse each gather at communal display or dancing grounds called Leks, (this is
usually on a bare patch of ground located on a hill or small rise in the
terrain), during the March to Mid-May booming season, with April being the best
month in Colorado.
At this time of the year the males gather before
daylight, and as it gets lighter, they start performing by strutting, jumping
and calling. This continues each morning for an hour or two after sunrise.
These dances are filled with displays of the plumage of the males; by inflation
of air in colorful sacs on the sides of the neck or throat; and booming,
cooing, or tooting sounds that carry long distances. The dances or group
displays of the males, accompanied by some fighting, are amongst the most
colorful and spectacular of any in the animal kingdom.
Males maintain small courting grounds on the arena,
or lek, where they display and which they defend against adjacent males or
newcomers-usually younger males attempting to establish their own courting
grounds on the arena. Females appear at the arena only to select and copulate
with a displaying male. Copulation occurs only on the small territory.
Females form no pair bonds, as do most other birds,
instead they leave after one or more matings and nest some distance away from
the arena. The male takes no part in
selecting the nest site, building or incubating. His role is that of making
himself conspicuous and available to females.
The Sage Grouse has the largest arenas. One big one
may be half a mile long and 200 yards wide, with 400 male grouse within it,
each about 25-40’ apart. The most successful cocks are those that maintain
territories near the center of the lek. These males (less than 10% of the arena
birds) copulate with more than 75% of the visiting females. Males are usually
larger than females, and most males are polygamous
Most leks are only used for a few seasons, while some
are used year after year. Both prairie-chicken species are creatures of the
immense grasslands that once covered much of the Midwest and plains states.
Historically found in large numbers, these birds were used as an important
food source by both Native Americans and European colonizers. Conversion of
grassland to cropland and intensive overgrazing, however, reduced habitat
to such an extent that only remnant populations remain.
Male has fleshy yellow-orange eye combs.
The Greater Prairie-Chicken has a short, rounded
dark tail, black in male, barred in female.
The females are darker and warmer overall, with
completely barred body.
They prefer wetter areas of native tall grass and
sparser prairie.
Note: 2
subspecies: The eastern race which was the nominate subspecies, the Heath Hen,
became extinct in 1932, and the rare and endangered SE Texas race, Attwater’s
Prairie-Chicken T.c.attwateri.
The males have bare orange “sacs” (enlarged
esophagus) on the sides of the throat called tympani, which are inflated
in courtship. When the prairie-chickens deflate their sacs, a deep booming
sound occurs that can be heard up to a mile away. This display call is a low, hooting moan oooa-hooooooom
about 2 seconds long, known as ‘booming’, like air blown across the top of a
bottle.
Throughout all this (as the females join the
activity to pick a mate from the best performers), the males perform an
intricate footwork ‘dance’ as they take a few tiny steps, then rapidly stamp
their feet. Occasionally a male may try and encroach on another’s territory and
a ‘fight’ will result.
During the display the male Greater fans his tail several
times at the beginning and at the end of display. He also gives a pwoik
in the presence of a female.
Smaller and paler, and less
heavily barred below than the Greater Prairie-Chicken, with yellow eye
combs.
Females are paler and grayer
overall, with a weakly barred belly
The air sacs of male are dull orange-red.
Prefers drier/arid, shorter sandsage/bluestem areas of
prairie.
Courting habits are similar to those of the Greater,
but the booming notes are higher pitched.
In display, the males raise their pinnae feather
tufts on their necks like antennae, eye combs engorged, air sacs inflated,
bowing, stamping their feet rapidly while making hollow gobbling sounds. They
may leap in the air with loud cackles, contesting for the best territory and
the right to pass along their individual genes.
Lesser Prairie-Chickens display patterns differ from
Greater in that the Lesser fans its tail only at the beginning of the display
sequence.
The males display call is a bubbling, hooting wamp
wamp wodum wodum and wild clucking in descending series. They also give
a sharp pike in the presence of female.
Similar to Prairie-Chickens, with scaled and spotted
under parts, not barred. Tail is white and pointed.
They have a small erectile crest on the head and
yellowish eye combs.
Inflatable esophageal areas or “air sacs” are purple
or violet-red in male.
Found in a wide variety of habitat, though mainly
open brushland prairie, they have been able to adapt to life in cultivated
areas where the crops are grains or other grasses
Note: 2 subspecies in Colorado: The ‘Columbian’
race is resident in NW Colorado. The ‘Plains’ subspecies is a resident
occurring in small and diminishing numbers in Douglas County, south of Denver.
All known leks are deep in private land with no public access.
On the display grounds, males inflate their air
sacs, uttering hollow booming or cooing sounds, while raising and fanning their
tail; bent over and bowing, rustling and quivering their wings in a challenge
to nearby males and to attract females; stamping their feet in rhythmic
patterns all the while turning and spinning.
Maybe these were the origins of the Native American spring and fertility
dances, known as ‘chicken dances’.
Vocal display includes weird, unearthly hoots yooown,
gyowdowdyom, gloooown as well as cackling and a single low coo-oo,
accompanied by the rattling of wing quills.
Greater
Sage Grouse Centrocercus urophasianus
Yellow eye combs on male
Found in sagebrush plains, where sage leaves are its
staple diet in winter
Oldest and most experienced males compete for
positions at center of display grounds, and these males are usually the ones
chosen by females.
Lewis and Clarke called this bird the ‘Cock of the
Plains’
Best known for the spectacular courtship displays of
the males: large numbers (up to 70 or more) gather in spring on traditional dancing
grounds and strut with their white chests puffed out, inflating the two
yellow-green air sacs of breast, raising and spreading their long spiky tail,
while they droop their wings, throwing their head back on their shoulders,
almost having it disappear, as the air sacs are deflated with loud bubbling,
popping sound. This display lasts about 3 seconds
Display includes two swishing sounds as wings brush
against body, then two weird hooting, popping sounds oo-Widoo-Widoo-wup.
Gunnison
Sage-Grouse Centrocercus minimus
Recently established new species. Only found in the
Gunnison Basin of west-central Colorado.
Gunnison’s Sage Grouse is 2/3
the size of the Greater Sage Grouse with some differences.
The tail feathers on Gunnison’s are whiter with more
distinctive barring, than the Greater Sage Grouse. Note: This is shown
incorrectly in the Adult in display on P.148 of Sibley’s Guide to Birds
In display the Gunnison’s raises its thicker
filoplume feathers, which are tossed over the males head versus simpler laid
backed on Greater Sage Grouse.
Their displays lasts about 3 seconds, but perform
fewer displays per minute than Greater Sage Grouse.
They also pop their yellow breast air sacs 9 times,
which are lower pitched, instead of the 2 that Greater Sage Grouse perform,
thus creating different sounds. They
also give 3 faint wing-swish sounds in middle of display (very little wing
movement), while Greater Sage Grouse does this only 2 times; the whole display
is low-pitched and monotonic.
In Gunnison’s the display often ends with a tail-shaking
motion (with the tail still raised) absent in Greater Sage Grouse.
Blue
Grouse Dendragapus obscurus
2 distinct populations - Interior (Dusky Grouse)
race: northern rockies is nominate race; southern rockies D.o.richardsonii.
There is another race coastal Pacific (Sooty Grouse D.o.fuliginosus)
In display they have a fleshy purple air sac with
smoother surface and broader white border. (Pacific shows warty, bright yellow
air sacs on neck with less extensive white-feathered border). Averages lighter
overall than Pacific. Has a slightly more squared tail (vs. slightly rounded or
wedge-shaped). Tail feathers are square and dark gray tips (vs. round-tipped
with narrow light gray tips). Also they usually have 20 tail feathers (vs. 18).
Usually a solitary species. Found singly in pine or
fir forests, generally in open conifer and aspen stands (woods) with an
understory of shrubs, such as sagebrush flats or clearings adjacent to
shrublands.
Slow moving and inconspicuous but often surprisingly
tame. Most likely to be noticed in spring, when males ‘sing’ incessantly to
attract mates, a series of deep hoots. Males in display give a single low hoot;
advertising call a series of very low, pulsing hoots whoof whoof whoof whoof
whoof, rising then falling slightly.
Male hooting series differs between populations: usually 5 syllables,
lower-pitched, and audible at only 50 yards in Interior race. (Usually 6
syllables, higher-pitched, and audible at a quarter mile in Pacific race).
Courting males stand on high spots (often perch in
trees in Pacific) and inflate their purplish-red neck sacs to amplify their
hooting or groaning sounds. Display also involves fluttering above the ground
or making short circular flights, and then strutting with tail raised and
fanned, body tipped forward, head drawn in, wings dragging.
White-tailed
Ptarmigan Lagopus leucurus
Resident of the alpine tundra, they usually found in
barren rocky areas or damp alpine meadows.
They are the only members of the Grouse Family to
have their toes completely feathered and to have strikingly different plumage
in summer and in winter, molting 3 times a year, matching seasonal changes in
habitat.
They are the smallest members of the Grouse Family.
All white tail. Winter birds are all white except
for small dark bill and eyes and red eye comb.
Ptarmigan fly directly into soft snowbanks to sleep;
dozens may roost close together, but none walk to the roosting places because
their tracks could be followed by foxes, lynxes etc.
During the breeding season, males and females defend
individual territories. In courtship display, males raise their red combs above
eyes, spreads its tail, bows giving a rapid clucking pik pik pik pik piKEEA
and low, hoarse pwirr while alternating fast and slow strutting. They
have no flight display.
Males usually remain with the female until sometime
during incubation.
Native to the Middle East and southern Asia, it was introduced as a game bird, where it has thrived in some arid grassland mixed with sagebrush or saltbush regions of the west and rocky desert canyons. Needs cover of grass, brush; introduced cheatgrass is key element.
Travels in coveys, out of the breeding season.
They become more conspicuous in spring, when the
harsh cackling chuk chuk chukar of the territorial males echoes from the
rocky cliffs.
In courtship, the male displays
by tilting its head and circling the female.
Information
gathered from:
The Audubon Society Encyclopedia
of North American Birds by John Terres
National Geographic Field Guides
to the Birds of North America
ABA Birdfinding Guide: A Birders
Guide to Colorado by Harold Holt
Lives of North American Birds by
Kenn Kaufman
National Audubon Society: The
Sibley Guide to Birds by David Sibley
Adrian Binns 12/00
