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Greater Sage-Grouse
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| ©
Herbert Clarke Courtesy of eNature |
Species
description provided by eNature
Description
Male, 26-30" (66-76 cm); female, 22-23" (56-58 cm). Both sexes mottled
gray-brown above with black belly. Male has long pointed tail, black
throat, white breast, with elongated neck plumes flanking breast.
Female's head, back, and breast uniformly barred. Displaying male
fans tail and tilts it forward; inflates pair of naked yellowish-green
air sacs in neck and breast.
Voice
When flushed, a chicken-like cackling call. Males make bubbling
sound during courtship.
Habitat
Open country and sagebrush plains.
Nesting
6-9 olive-green eggs, lightly spotted with brown, in a well-concealed
grass-lined depression.
Range
Resident from southern Alberta and Saskatchewan south to eastern
California, Nevada, Colorado, and South Dakota.
Discussion
The Greater Sage-Grouse is well named, for it is quite dependent
on sagebrush. In the fall and winter the leathery leaves of sagebrush
are one of its only foods, and during the rest of the year sagebrush
provides it with cover. Each spring the males gather on a traditional
display ground, called a lek, to court the females. Once a female
has mated, she goes off and raises her family by herself.
