Adult male. Photo: Rick Bohn/USFWS/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
Tympanuchus phasianellus
| Conservation status | Has disappeared from some parts of former range (especially southern areas), and may still be declining. Loss of habitat is main cause. |
|---|---|
| Family | Pheasants and Grouse |
| Habitat | Prairie, brushy groves, forest edges, open burns in coniferous forest. Prime habitat includes a mixture of open prairie with groves of deciduous trees or shrubs, such as aspen, birch, willow. Shifts habitat with season, occupying more open grasslands in summer, groves of trees and shrubs in winter. |
Forages mostly on ground in summer, mostly in trees and shrubs in winter.
5-17, typically about 12. Olive-buff to pale brown, usually speckled with various browns. Incubation is by female only, about 23-24 days. Young: Downy young leave nest shortly after hatching. Female tends young and leads them to feeding areas, but young feed themselves. Young can make short flights at age of 1-2 weeks, but are not full-grown for several more weeks.
Downy young leave nest shortly after hatching. Female tends young and leads them to feeding areas, but young feed themselves. Young can make short flights at age of 1-2 weeks, but are not full-grown for several more weeks.
Mostly seeds, buds, leaves. Mostly vegetarian for most of year. In winter, when food on ground is mostly buried by snow, feeds heavily on buds of trees and shrubs. In spring, eats leaves, green shoots, large numbers of flowers. Varied diet in fall, with seeds, berries, leaves, waste grains. Insects eaten mainly in summer (especially by young birds), including many grasshoppers.
In early mornings in spring, males gather on display ground. Male points tail up, spreads wings, holds head low, stamps feet rapidly while moving forward or in circles. Male inflates neck sacs, then deflates them with hollow cooing sound; also rattles tail feathers. Female visits display grounds, mates with one of the males. Nest site is on ground, under shrub or thick clump of grass. Nest (built by female) is a shallow depression with a sparse lining of grass, leaves, ferns.
Audubon’s scientists have used 140 million bird observations and sophisticated climate models to project how climate change will affect this bird’s range in the future.
Zoom in to see how this species’s current range will shift, expand, and contract under increased global temperatures.
Choose a temperature scenario below to see which threats will affect this species as warming increases. The same climate change-driven threats that put birds at risk will affect other wildlife and people, too.
Nature has way better moves than the Funky Chicken.
The springtime dance battles of grouse and other species are irresistible camera fodder. Photographer Noppadol Paothong explains how to nail your shot without disturbing the delicate mating ritual.
Consider this your guide to the mating ritual that shapes the lives of a hundred dancing, singing bird species.
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