Greater Prairie-Chicken

Greater Prairie-Chicken, male displaying

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Greater Prairie-Chicken, female, June

Greater Prairie-Chicken, breeding male; June

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Sound
4. Range
5. Habitat
6. Food
7. Behavior
8. Reproduction
9. Conservation Status
10. Other Names

A grouse of open grassland, the Greater Prairie-Chicken is known for its mating dance. Males display together in a communal lek, where they raise ear-like feathers above their heads, inflate orange sacs on the sides of their throats, and stutter-step around while making a deep hooting moan.

Cool Facts

• The extinct Heath Hen was a distinct subspecies of the Greater Prairie-Chicken that was found in the scrub oakland and fire-created blueberry barrens of the East Coast. The last Heath Hens were confined to the island of Martha's Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts, where they went extinct in 1932.

Description

• Size: 43 cm (17 in)
• Weight: 700-1200 g (24.71-42.36 ounces)

Medium to large chicken-like bird. Striped brown and white. Short, rounded tail. Wings rounded in flight.

Sex Differences

Sexes similar, male has long tufts of feathers and orange sacs on the sides of its neck, and a solidly colored, not barred tail.

Immature

Similar to adult.

Sound

Displaying male makes booming "whhooo-doo-doooh."

Range

Range Map

© 2004 Cornell Lab of Ornithology

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Summer Range

Resident in scattered locations from South Dakota to Illinois and Texas.

Habitat

Open prairie and oak savannah.

Food

Leaves, seeds, buds, cultivated grains, and insects.

Behavior

Courtship

Multiple males display at group display site, known as a lek.

Reproduction

Condition at Hatching

Downy and able to follow mother.

Conservation Status

Eastern subspecies, known as the Heath Hen, went extinct in 1932. Texas form, the Attwater's Prairie-Chicken is critically endangered and at severe risk of extinction.

Other Names

Poule des prairies (French)

Sources used to construct this page:

Schroeder, M. A. and L. A. Robb. 1993. Greater Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus cupido). In The Birds of North America, No. 36 (A. Poole, P. Stettenheim, and F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, DC: The American Ornithologists' Union.